GLIMPSE | Issue #6, summer 2010 | Visions by M. Hurst

the art + science of seeing

Issue #6

Visions

issue 6

Gl mpse

V i s i o n s

the art + science of seeing TM

GLIMPSE is an independent, interdisciplinary journal that examines the functions, processes and effects of vision and its implications for being, knowing and constructing our world(s). Each theme-focused issue features articles, visual essays, interviews and reviews spanning the physical sciences, social sciences, arts and humanities.

C O N T E N T S The V i s i o n s Issue

34 10

INVISIBLE FRIENDS The creation of imaginary companions in childhood and beyond Tracy Gleason

THE SIMULATION OF THE GOD EXPERIENCE WITHIN THE LABORATORY

20 49

Arto Vaun

VISION AND VISIONS IN PIERO DELLA FRANCESCA’S LEGEND OF THE TRUE CROSS

Decoding the Neurological Basis of Shamanic Visions An interview with Michael Winkelman Carolyn Arcabascio

M.A. Persinger

Tara Describes a Photograph to Me

Neutral Territories The High Sierra - traveling inward Peter Miles Bergman

Robert Belton and Bernd Kersten

(Front cover image) by Wayne Kleppe. (Back cover) “Apparition,” by Hugo C. Cardoso. March 2007, Central Amsterdam (The Netherlands).

RETROSPECT ca. 1870 The temperance campaign against things that go bump in the night Lauren B. Hewes

online

OUR INSCAPES PROJECTED OUTWARD Charles Bonnet Syndrome Rachel Sapin

Performing Imaginary Pilgrimages Re/enacting the cloistered meta-voyages of the 15th-century Sisters of the Dominican Observance Carolyn Arcabascio

Extended interview with Michael Winkelman; music from PERFORMING IMAGINARY PILGRIMAGES; the Visions issue playlist; & the GLIMPSE blog

Gl mpse

(Re)views Requiem, Where the Wild Things Are & Harvey Ivy Moylan

Dr. Kathryne Beebe

GLIMPSE www.glimpsejournal.com

Originally from Kansas City, Missouri, Beebe holds a doctorate in medieval history from University of Oxford. Her dissertation centered on the readership and reception of Felix Fabri’s four Holy Land pilgrimage narratives. She was a Junior Research Fellow in History at Balliol College, Oxford, and in 2008 she was appointed as the V.H. Galbraith Teaching & Research Fellow at St. Hilda’s College, Oxford. Her research interests include the history of the book, women’s history and the cultural history of spirituality. She is currently embarked upon a new project to investigate the connection between enclosure, imagined pilgrimage, and religious reform in pre-Reformation Germany. She’s also looking forward to returning home, where this fall she will begin a post as Assistant Professor of History at Southeast Missouri State University in Cape Girardeau, MO.

Dr. Robert Belton Belton is Dean of the Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies at the University of British Columbia’s Okanagan campus. He has offered courses in art history and theory at a number of Canadian universities, one of which recognized him with two awards for teaching excellence in the same year. Dr. Belton’s research focuses on Surrealist art, Canadian art, and art theory. Among his books are The Beribboned Bomb: The Image of Woman in

Male Surrealist Art; Sights of Resistance: Approaches to Canadian Visual Culture; and The Theatre of the Self: The Life and Art of William Ronald.

Peter Miles Bergman Bergman is a conceptual artist interested in immediate lived experience and a designer, writer and type teacher interested in mediated written narratives. Bergman publishes art-documentation under the name “Institute of Sociometry” in creative publications and on http:// www.sociometry.com. “Neutral Territories,” in this issue, is part of PaCT—an ongoing series of stories, maps and photo animations at http://www.sociometry. com/PaCT.html. PaCT documents a 1996, 1,700 mile walk with Bergman’s lifelong friend Dylan Kuhn on the Pacific Crest Trail, and their ensuing plans to return after 23 years in 2018 (twice as old) to complete the remaining 900 miles. In 2009, on a 555 mile walk across Wyoming on the Continental Divide Trail, it was settled that such trips are not hikes but pilgrimages into the inner-self. This summer (2010) they are taking more of a dérive, walking without a set route from Bergman’s front door in Denver a couple hundred miles up to the Continental Divide above Leadville, Colorado.

Dr. Tracy Gleason Gleason is a developmental psychologist at Wellesley College, where she has been on the faculty since 1998. She is also the Psychological Director of the Wellesley College Child Study Center, a campus laboratory preschool. Her primary area of research focuses on early childhood social development and cognition regarding interpersonal relationships. Specifically, she is interested in how young children conceptualize their relationships with other people, how they learn to differentiate relationships, and in particular, in the relationships that young children have with imaginary companions. By examining how young children create and maintain imaginary relationships, she hopes to learn what they understand about real relationships and the development of cognition in this domain. She is also interested in early moral development, and the role that imagination might play in moral behavior.

Lauren B. Hewes

Hewes is the Andrew W. Mellon Curator of Graphic Arts at the American Antiquarian Society in Worcester, Massachusetts. She has responsibility for the Society’s outstanding collection of prints, drawings, photographs and ephemera, as well as painted portraits and decorative arts. She has written widely on American

art, including topics such as portrait painting, Currier & Ives lithographs, and reproductive engraving. Her work at the Society includes interacting with scholars, authors, students and K-12 teachers. One of her primary goals is to increase access to the complex graphic arts holdings of the institution, including the creation of inventories and finding aides.

Dr. Bernd Kersten

Dr. Michael A. Persinger Persinger has pursued solutions to interdisciplinary and “big picture” problems and questions for more than 40 years. His primary approach has been to isolate the essential concepts and operations shared by all of the sciences and humanities with an emphasis on the metaphysical concept of “the ultimate reality”. Realizing that processes generated by the human brain are the ultimate reference and source of perception for all knowledge, he has devised naturalistic settings and experiments to extract these patterns and reproduce them within the laboratory. During the last four decades he has shown the quantitative bases to the tectonic strain theory for luminous events, the quantum

Dr. Jonathan Williams Williams is the Director of College Music at St Hilda’s College, Oxford, director of the all-female vocal group Consort Iridiana, and Orchestration tutor at the University. His doctoral research (since published by Bärenreiter) was on the music of Jean-Philippe Rameau, but his conducting career hints at a passion for music of many other periods and genres, whether it be medieval vocal music, orchestral and ballet music, fully-staged operas by Mozart, Tchaikovsky or Puccini, or recording in London’s Abbey Road Studios. His interest in the relationship between music and drama extends to his

role as Orchestral Director of Nimrod Productions, the UK’s leading producer of music for video games, including the Ivor Novello award-winning soundtrack for Sony PS3’s flagship title of 2009, Killzone 2.

Dr. Michael Winkelman Winkelman is retired from the School of Human Evolution and Social Change at Arizona State University. He was President of the Anthropology of Consciousness section of the American Anthropological Association, and was the founding President of its Anthropology of Religion Section. Winkelman has engaged in cross-cultural and interdisciplinary research on shamanism for the past 30 years, focusing principally on the cross-cultural patterns of shamanism and identifying the associated biological bases of shamanic universals and altered states of consciousness. His principal publications on shamanism include Shamans, Priests and Witches (1992) and Shamanism: A Biopsychosocial Paradigm of Consciousness and Healing (2010). He has also addressed the evolutionary origins of religion in Supernatural as Natural (with John Baker, 2008). He is currently developing permaculture-based intentional communities in the central highlands of Brazil. He can be contacted via michaelwinkelman.com

issue 6 Visions

Kersten is a faculty member at the Institut für Psychologie der Universität Bern, Switzerland. He has published on visual perception, aesthetic processing, and related matters.

bases for human thought, the electromagnetic equivalents of biochemical processes, the physical bases to alleged paranormal events, the importance of epileptic phenomena in spiritual experiences, and the role of earth forces in group behavior. He has published 400 technical articles in referred scientific journals and about half a dozen books. He is presently Coordinator of the Behavioural Neuroscience Program and a Full Professor in the Departments of Psychology and Biology and the Biomolecular Sciences and Human Development Programs at Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ontario.

GLIMPSE Team Megan Hurst Founder, Editor Carolyn Arcabascio Acquisitions Editor Rachel Sapin Editorial Assistant, Staff Writer Wayne Kleppe Design Intern, Illustrator Ivy Moylan Contributor, Film Reviews Arto Vaun Staff Poet, Contributing Poetry Editor Adjunct + Alumni Christine Madsen Co-Founder, Editor (Europe) Nicholas Munyan Consulting Designer EmComm Marketing + Communications

GLIMPSE www.glimpsejournal.com

Matthew Steven Carlos Editorial Advisor Anthony Owens Photographer Jamie Ahlstedt Logo Design

GLIMPSE PO Box 44 Salem, MA 01970 ISSN 1945-3906 www.glimpsejournal.com All articles and artwork © the specified authors/artists/ advertisers. All other content © Mho Media Inc.

ERRATA In GLIMPSE vol 2.4, winter 2009-2010, “The Use of Color In Interstellar Message Design,” by Kimberly A. Jameson and Jon Lomberg: Digital copies circulated on or before March 21, 2010, contained an error in the orientation of the full-page illustration on page 54. The illustration was presented in mirror-image of the authors’ intended orientation, as a result of an error made during the production process. All print copies of vol 2.4, and all digital copies downloaded or viewed on the www.glimpsejournal.com web site after March 21, 2010, present the illustration in the correct orientation.

FROM THE EDITOR GLIMPSE offers a full-on investigation of the art and science of all kinds of seeing, including those that can be disputed or that do not fall neatly into specific categories or disciplines. The Visions issue has spurred a discussion among the GLIMPSE staff, and those that must live with us, about human experience, social and socioreligious experience. In considering visions, we explore that place where “the theatre of the mind meets the machinery of the brain,” as neuroscientist Oliver Sacks quoted Charles Bonnet (see page 73)*. After investigating, and engaging with our noteworthy contributors for this issue— representing the fields of sociology, psychology, religious studies, neurology, art history and the human experiences of artists and shamans—we propose that socalled “visions” might be described as: 1) Induced by any number of factors, including: a) Visual sensory deprivation (darkness) b) Underdevelopment or deterioration of the visual system c) Stimulation of the neural system i. By chemical means ii. By electromagnetic forces iii. ...? d) Imagination (...another theme for a future issue, to be sure) e) Dreaming (...and another theme) 2) Deeply felt emotionally and possibly including a sense of: a) Comfort b) Connectedness c) Awe d) Fear 3) Integrated into or creating a framework of meaning that drives: a) Belief b) Transformation of world-view c) Social development d) Action Despite the variety of visionary experiences described throughout history, their myriad explanations, and our propensity to believe or disbelieve them, it seems clear that people do “see things” that are not physically present, or visible to others. This GLIMPSE issue investigates not whether the visions we see are ”real,” but instead how and/or why we might see them, and what these experiences engender personally and collectively. If the eyes are the “window to the soul,” perhaps they are also the window out of it. Images generated and stored within (precious images as well as the visual detritus of everyday life), envelop the seer as well as those around them who choose to participate in, or resist these visions. Megan Hurst editor@glimpsejournal.com

* “Oliver Sacks: What hallucination reveals about our minds,” TED Talks. http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/637. Accessed July 20, 2010.

Glimpse the art + science of seeing I am paying by __Check ___VISA ___MasterCard ____________________________________________ Card Number Exp. Date ____________________________________________ Signature

SELECT TYPE BELOW ELECTRONIC ____ 1-year/$40 ____ 2-years/$65

Send my subscription to: ____________________________________________ PRINT Name (required) ____________________________________________ United States Email address (required for subscription correspondence) ____1-year/$120 ____________________________________________ ____ 2-year/$225

INVE ST IN

Street Address, Apt # (required for print subscription)

INSI

____________________________________________ Canada City, State/Province/County Postal Code Country ____ 1-year/$126 ____ 2-year/$240 Mail this form with payment to:

Or subscribe online www.glimpsejournal.com/subscribe.html

International ____ 1-year/$195 ____ 2-year/$380

issue 6 Visions

GLIMPSE journal PO Box 44 Salem, MA 01970

7 The Dawn of the Color Photograph Albert Kahn’s Archives of the Planet

David Okuefuna In 1909 the French banker and philanthropist Albert Kahn launched a monumentally ambitious project: to produce a color photographic record of human life on Earth. Over the next twenty years, he sent a group of photographers to more than fifty countries around the world, amassing more than 72,000 images. Today Kahn’s collection of early color photographs is recognized as one of the world’s most important. “[D]oes the past change when we see it in color? In many instances, the vivid palette brings the images closer to our present moment, making the world—and the distance of history—frighteningly small.” —Nicole Rudick, Bookforum “[A] handsome document full of lush and memorable images. Most of us still picture 1909 exclusively in black and white, so it’s a revelation to peer back 100 years and see such eerily bright hues.” —Dushko Petrovich, The Boston Globe 336 pages. 370 color illus. 9 x 9. Cloth $49.50 978-0-691-13907-4

For sale only in the United States and Canada

800.777.4726 press.princeton.edu

GLIMPSE www.glimpsejournal.com

Now Available

In the Next Issue... Aesthetic Innovation In Indigenous Typefaces: Designing a Lushootseed font Juliet Shen GLIMPSE interviews Matthew Schneps on the connection between peripheral vision and aesthetic sensibility in dyslexics

issue 6 Visions

9 Issue #7 GLIMPSE interviews artist Megan Michalak about visualizing contemporary news metanarratives The Anatomy of TEXTure Matt Reed Reading Europe’s Paleolithic Writing Donald Thomas Burgy Mapping Text André Skupin and more...

invisiblefriends

the creation of imaginary companions in childhood and beyond by Tracy Gleason

When children are playing alone on the green, In comes the playmate that never was seen. When children are happy and lonely and good, The Friend of the Children comes out of the wood. Nobody heard him and nobody saw, His is a picture you never could draw, But he's sure to be present, abroad or at home, When children are happy and playing alone. Excerpt from ''The Unseen Playmate'' by Robert Louis Stevenson

ver the course of childhood, about two-

of the variety of imaginary companions

thirds of all children invent imaginary

that, albeit unseen, inhabit our world.

companions. These creations often provide endless hours of companionship,

Two phenomena are typically included

affection, and intimacy to the architects

in studies of imaginary companions.

of their existence. As Stevenson suggests,

“Invisible companions” come in all

imaginary companions are often around

shapes and sizes, from tiny people that

when children are alone, and indeed, they

children carry around in their hands or

are particularly common in firstborn and only

pockets to larger than life monsters

“

However,

and

dragons.

Sometimes

invisible

companions are shared by siblings

Sara, the stuffed bear, liked to pretend that she was a kitty

or friends, or passed down within a family, but most are invented and maintained by a single child.

“

(Indeed, having total control over the characteristics and activities of such a friend may be part of

in early childhood in particular, this form

the appeal.) About a third of invisible

of imagination is often shared with others,

companions

particularly parents, perhaps as a way of

people, usually children who are

generating conversation and providing the

similar in age to their creators.7 While

child with an area of expertise not shared by

some invisible friends occur singly,

other family members.3, 4 In fact, discussions of

others may consist of a group with a

an imaginary companion’s antics and activities

central character, like an invisible girl

can be so vivid, and become so commonplace

with a large extended family. Other

in a family, that a sense of relationship with

invisible companions exist as groups

the imaginary being emerges—not just

of indefinite size, such as herds of

between the companion and the child, but

invisible cows or members of a club.1

between the companion and each family

member individually.

5, 6

(Left) “Snuggle Bear,” is a charming stuffed brown bear animated and loved by a 4-year-old boy. Although Snuggle Bear’s owner is his daddy, they are also close friends and have been for years. When the little boy plays firefighter, Snuggle Bear likes to be his fire dog.

Many parents have

contrast,

are

typically

“personified

ordinary

objects”

are imaginary companions based on

thus been interviewed

concrete,

tangible

objects—usually

about their children’s

stuffed animals or dolls—that are

imaginary companions,

animated and imbued with personality,

and

preferences, emotions, and needs. In

information gathered

my own work I have met a wide variety

from both children and

of objects that were personified,

adults paints a picture

such as Sara, the stuffed bear who

plethora

issue 6 Visions

children who lack sibling playmates.

1, 2

liked to pretend that she was a kitty;

course of pretense, but these creations

Gordon and Percy, a pair of small,

are too transitory to be relationship

cheeky toy trains (based on characters

partners and thus do not qualify as true

from the TV series Thomas the Tank

imaginary companions. Most researchers

Engine); and a mischievous, worn cloth

require an invisible other or animated

diaper named Raggie. I even heard

object to be present or personified for

once about a little boy who had a close

at least a month to meet the criteria

relationship with a friendly 4 oz. can of

for being an imaginary companion.1,

tomato paste.

“ GLIMPSE www.glimpsejournal.com

To my mind, a month is the minimum amount of time needed for a

Over time, however, Murray has grown into quite a complex creature, going to his own school, traveling to Bunnyland for festivals, and speaking the Bunny language.

“

child to imagine and develop a relationship with his or her creation. But

where

companions

do come

imaginary from?

Most parents report that their children’s imaginary companions

What these types of companions

appeared

all have in common is that they

parents’ ability to report on imaginary

quite

suddenly,

although

are imaginary others, distinct and

companions’ appearances is, of course,

separate from the child him or

dependent upon their child’s desire to

herself, thus providing a forum for

share information about the pretend

the development of an imagined

friend.1 Sometimes some sort of event

relationship. In other words, children

or experience prompts the emergence

who create imaginary companions

of an imaginary companion, or it may

invent both the relationship partner

emerge from a favorite work of fiction.

as well as the relationship itself.

Although some invisible companions are

This point is important, as it helps

completely invented characters, others

to distinguish the creation of an

are derived from media, such as books

imaginary companion from other forms

and movies, or are imagined versions

of pretense, such as engaging in role

of real people. Similarly, personified

play. When role playing, children might

objects range from the generic, like

take on a persona, but this activity

teddy bears or baby dolls, to objects

does not allow for the development

that do not have any inherently human

of a relationship. Children might also

or human-like properties (e.g., blankets

develop an invisible play partner in the

or cans of tomato paste). Like invisible

companions, some personified objects are

personified objects. Instead, while the form of

media-inspired, such as stuffed animals

an object might provide the initial context for

associated with television shows or action

its personality or preferences, many personified

figures of comic book superheroes.

objects acquire unique qualities and engage in activities that belie their physical appearances.

hy some children invent their

For instance, I am acquainted with a charming

imaginary

companions

stuffed bunny named Murray. While Murray certainly eats carrots and hops about as any

or real people is unclear. In one

respectable bunny would do, over the course

sense, however, the basis of an

of his multi-year existence he has acquired a

imaginary companion explains little about

plethora of skills and characteristics that expand

its existence, because no matter what

far beyond his bunny-ness. At first, his activities

the source or type—real or invented,

were limited to scripted, somewhat stereotyped

invisible or personified—many if not

play scenes such as tea parties, where naturally

most imaginary companions develop

Murray was served carrots. Over time, however,

characteristics and behaviors that move

Murray has grown into quite a complex creature,

beyond those inherent in their original

going to his own school, traveling to Bunnyland

form. For example, in one of my studies

for festivals (where he is a bit of a dignitary), and

I met a boy whose invisible friend, Anna,

speaking the Bunny language.5 In fact, in later

was based upon a real friend of the same

years, Murray’s physical form became incidental

name. However, the boy pretended that

to his existence. His exploits ranged around the

the invisible version of Anna lived in his

globe, but Murray himself spent weeks on end

room and was his wife—something he had

under a bed or seated on a dresser, not even a

never pretended with the real Anna.10 His

issue 6 Visions

and

others draw them from stories

party to the tales of his adventures.

interactions with invisible Anna thus centered on their relationship and their life at home, whereas the real Anna was a typical school playmate. Importantly, the process of expansion beyond form works the same way for personified objects as for invisible companions. This fact is somewhat surprising given that their concrete form could, in theory, define the existence and character of

(Left) “Sini” is a baby alligator. Since all babies are girls (according to her 3-year-old female creator), Sini started as a girl but has since sometimes been a boy. Sini’s scales (blue lines radiating from the body) along the back to the right will poke a car’s tire if he/she gets run over. He/she also has scales on his/her tummy and insides of many different colors.

The tendency of imaginary companions to

preschoolers, and thus presumably

expand beyond their origins in reality, should

not as adept at maintaining and

they have them, is evident in the descriptions

manipulating mental images as older

children provide for them, particularly for invisible

children or adults.

companions. These descriptions range from somewhat ordinary to rather extraordinary. Here

Ronald M. Benson and David B. Pryor,

are some examples from my own work:

both clinical psychiatrists, provide a

10, 11, 12

• Madical: 4-year-old girl with brown hair and light skin (like her creator) • Huckle: Based on a cat in books by Richard Scarry; described as red, orange, black, green, silver, and white with green work boots • Mousies: A mixed-gender group of mice who

associated

with

some

imaginary

companions.15 They provide a case history of Lynn, a girl whom they interviewed at age 16 about her childhood imaginary companion, a

• Shadow: The child’s shadow

• Dee Dee: A girl with black hair, brown face, white lips and purple hairy feet

• Lissa: A baby girl with pink skin with sparkles, blonde hair, black eyes, a square shape for her

tummy, a circle mouth and triangle cheeks

As these descriptions suggest, children appear

to have mental images of their imaginary companions. Those images may change over

time, but some evidence suggests that they demonstrate at least some continuity and stability. Specifically, developmental psychologist

Marjorie Taylor and her colleagues found few

htt

differences in descriptions provided by children

in interviews about seven months apart.13

Moreover, the discrepancies they did find were analogous to changes in children’s descriptions of real friends over the same period of time. Even more striking, clinical psychologist

(Right page, view at counterclockwise orientation) Here is “Elliephant,” a light blue stuffed elephant whose 4-year-old creator cares for her like a mommy. They have been close since the girl’s infancy, and Elliephant regularly goes to school, sleeps in her bed, and needs a great deal of teaching and comforting.

Jennifer Mauro found stability in children’s descriptions of their imaginary companions over a three year span.14 These findings are particularly impressive given that the children in these studies were

m .ht

stuffed dog. Lynn became attached to

NT e E T rib N O bsc C Y /su L ON l.com N na O I r T u P I jo e R s SC imp B SU w.gl w w / p:/ wear clothes

GLIMPSE www.glimpsejournal.com

charming illustration of the imagery

the dog in infancy, and for the first few

years it appears to have been more of a transitional object; the dog was not animated or given a personality, and

Lynn associated it with comfort and security. After temporarily abandoning the stuffed dog at age three, Lynn went on to create an invisible imaginary dog, named Nosey, who became practically a part of the family for about a year. The authors contend that the stuffed dog was a model for Nosey, although the latter had features not shared by the stuffed version, such as an apron and a mop or broom that he always carried. In describing how she saw him, “Lynn recall[ed] that he was very real to her, but she never actually saw him. She said, ‘I would go to where he was in my mind to see him’” (Benson and Pryor, 458). When the invisible Nosey was abandoned when Lynn was four, her attachment to her stuffed dog reemerged and he became her constant companion, a personified object this time, until her mother intervened when Lynn was nine. At that time, Lynn put the dog away in

issue 6 Visions

a box in her closet. During the interview

and why pretend friends are more common among

many years later, she brought him out to

only children than children who live with siblings

show the study’s authors, expressing great

close in age.16 Only children may be more likely

surprise at finding him worn and tattered.

than others to have the time and space to enjoy

The imagery she associated with her toy

entertainment of their own, internal creation.

dog had far surpassed the object itself. he idea that the creation of imaginary

appears

have

happened

for

Lynn, creating an imaginary companion may be an activity that promotes the use of mental imagery and visual and auditory

GLIMPSE www.glimpsejournal.com

representation.

Engaging

companions might be connected to the vividness of an individual’s imagery has not received a great deal of attention in the literature. Recollections of older children and

adults suggest that imaginary companions are

such imaginative pursuits may require

certainly accompanied by vivid imagery, sometimes

reproduction of sights and sounds, such as

visual, sometimes auditory, often both. Obviously,

an imaginary companion’s voice or facial

these images are not percepts since most often

expressions on a personified object. In

they have no real sensory input, and they are not

turn, this practice at generating various

necessarily abstract mental representations, but

kinds of imagery may promote a level of

rather some sort of combination. Some may even be

vividness that is above average, or perhaps

eidetic, meaning that they are seen as vividly as real

those individuals who are already blessed

percepts.17 Individuals with imaginary companions know they are not real, so these

“

when I asked him the color of his little pony he said, 'I don't know... It never really came up. '

images are not hallucinations, but their exact form is elusive. Often, images of imaginary companions are projected into space, in that

“

children may ask parents to hold a door open, or to avoid sitting in a particular spot, so as to accommodate an invisible

with vivid imagery are the ones who create

imaginary friend.18 Although studies of adults

imaginary

Interestingly,

have not shown differences in vividness of imagery

people become more aware of their own

between those who did and did not have imaginary

imagery when the stimulation from the

companions as children, comparisons of these

outside world is minimal, which may be one

groups revealed greater frequency in the daily

factor that explains why children often play

use of imagery among those who remembered

with imaginary companions when alone,

pretend friends.19, 20 These findings suggest that if

companions.

children with and without imaginary companions

not most children, imaginary compan-

differ on the vividness of their imagery, these

ions exist as a forum for the creation

differences may fade with development, but the

of a relationship and all the joys that

early tendency to use imagery may last a lifetime.

come

from

interpersonal

contact.

Children use their imaginary companions to address social concerns and

may be particularly adept at using their imagery is

to understand others’ perspectives.24

supported by work on daydreaming and fantasy.

Imaginary companions are associated

When asked to wait quietly, in an environment with

with the benefits of real relationships,

little stimulation, children high in imaginativeness—

such as emotional support, validation,

including those with imaginary companions—are

and affection. In fact, imaginary com-

able to do so longer than their peers, although

panions may assist children in learn-

One idea is

ing to regulate their affect by helping

that these children may become more absorbed

them experience negative emotions

in their internal worlds, passing the time through

such as disappointment, sadness, and

fantasy and daydreaming. Indeed, having an

anger in a context without retribution

imaginary companion has been related to hypnotic

or recrimination. Similarly, imaginary

suggestion, as has engaging in daydreaming.23

companions are often a source of joy

NT e E T rib N O bsc C Y /su L ON l.com N na O I r T u P I jo e R s SC imp B SU w.gl w w / p:/

not always significantly longer.

14, 21, 22

Perhaps

individuals

who

create

imaginary

companions are also those who easily turn inward, whether because of a predisposition for fantasy

or as a result of frequent use of imagination. After all, shifting one’s attention away from the here and

htt

now to another time or place is a skill that can be learned and practiced.

My own research has suggested that the importance of pretend friends is not the imagery or form associated with them, or even the fondness of children with imaginary companions for imaginative activities in general. Instead, for many if (Right) These are the “Mousies,” the creation of a 4-year-old girl. The group of invisible mice, boys and girls, wear tiny clothes.

m .ht

issue 6 Visions

The notion that children with imaginary companions

“

and comfort, and can even provide a person to

teractions with saints or angels.19 At the

nurture. Moreover, imaginary companions can

least, most individuals periodically engage

provide a vehicle for reinforcing connections

in imagined interactions with real others.

to real others. Children will often talk of their

These pseudo-interactions help us resolve

pretend friends’ exploits by way of interjecting

our real-life conflicts and plan our answers

themselves into adult conversations, or use these

to upcoming job interviews.28 All of these

friends as a forum in which to provide expertise

activities constitute meaningful interper-

to their ignorant parents.3, 12 What they are look-

sonal interactions and relationships with

perhaps those individuals who are already blessed with vivid imagery are the ones who create imaginary companions is of their own invention, reinforcing the bond extended to them since birth.

GLIMPSE www.glimpsejournal.com

seen, in the same way as we are. An acquaintance once told me

about

his

l m ht

childhood

T . N E ibe T N scr O C ub Y s / L ON l.com N na O I T jour P I R pse C S im B SU w.gl w w ://

ing for in these instances is a bond to family that

“

beings who are not real, not

imaginary

companion:

small, invisible pony named

Stevie. He reported that he had vivid memories of it, and recounted stories of games of checkers and feeding Stevie tiny pine cones under a pine tree. Stevie

maginary companions appear to be created

was probably a helpful companion, in that

by people who have two qualities: a) a love of

my acquaintance’s younger brother had

social interaction and an orientation toward

health issues at the time that required a

others,2, 9, 20 and b) a predisposition for fantasy

great deal of his parents’ attention. Being

Creating an imagi-

alone much of the time gave my friend the

nary companion may allow these individuals to

opportunity to play with Stevie. Although

transcend the here and now to explore myriad

these memories dated back to his

possibilities in their favorite realm: the domain of

preschool years, he recounted them with

social interaction. Moreover, these forays into an

definite fondness and with a clarity that

imagined social world are not only a product of

suggested he could easily see Stevie in

childhood. Adults frequently seek comfort, solace,

his minds eye. He confirmed seeing Stevie

affection or validation in the felt presence of imagi-

quite clearly as a child, but when I asked

nary others. They may not describe themselves as

him the color of his little pony he said, “I

“having” imaginary companions, but they engage

don’t know…. It never really came up.”

in imaginative social activities defined by contexts.

Perhaps images of imaginary companions

An elderly widow may hold conversations with

fade like memories of faces unseen for

her deceased husband long after his death, or a

years, or maybe theirs is an imagery less

believer in parapsychology may make efforts to

of vision than of affection. w

and imaginative activities.

25, 26

p t t h

contact the spirits.

Novelists may describe per-

ceiving their characters as autonomous, whereas a religious experience might revolve around in-

Endnotes 1.

Gleason, T., Sebanc, A., and Hartup, W., ”Imaginary companions of preschool children.” Developmental Psychology 36: 419-428 (2000).

Singer, D., and Singer, J., The house of make believe. (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2000).

Klein, B., “A child’s imaginary companion: A transitional self,” Clinical Social Work Journal 13: 272-282 (1985).

Gleason, T. (forthcoming), “Imaginary relationships,” in M. Taylor (Ed.), Handbook of the Development of Imagination. (Oxford: Oxford University Press.)

Gleason, T., “Murray: The stuffed bunny,” in S. Turkle (Ed.), Evocative objects: Things we think with. (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2007) 171-177.

19. Connolly, J.F., “Adults who had imaginary playmates as children,” in R. G. Kunzendorf (Ed.), Mental imagery. (New York: Plenum Press, 1990) 113-120.

Newson, J., and Newson, E., Four years old in an urban community. (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1968).

20. Gleason, T., Jarudi, R., & Cheek, J.M., “Imagination, personality, and imaginary companions,” Social Behavior and Personality 31: 721-737 (2003).

Taylor, M., and Mannering, A., “Of Hobbes and Harvey: The imaginary companions created by children and adults,” in A. Göncü and S. Gaskins (Eds.), Play and development: Evolutionary, sociocultural, and functional perspectives. (Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum, 2006).

21. Manosevitz, M., Fling, S., and Prentice, N., “Imaginary companions in young children: Relationships with intelligence, creativity and waiting ability,” Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 18: 73-78 (1977).

Svendsen, M., “Children’s imaginary companions,” Archives of Neurology and Psychiatry 32: 985-999 (1934).

17. Harvey, N., Imaginary playmates and other mental phenomena of children. (Ypsilanti, MI: State Normal College, 1918). 18. Lukianowicz, N., “Visual thinking and similar phenomena,” The Journal of Mental Science 106: 979-1001 (1960).

l m ht

T . N E ibe T N scr O C ub Y s / L ON l.com N na O I T jour P I R pse C S im B SU w.gl w w ://

Taylor, M., Imaginary companions and the children who create them. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999).

10. Gleason, T., “Social provisions of real and imaginary relationships in early childhood.” Developmental Psychology 38: 979-992 (2002). 11. Gleason, T., “Imaginary companions: An evaluation of parents as reporters,” Infant and Child Development 13: 199-215 (2004).

p t t h

12. Gleason, T., and White, R., “Talking to a tiger: Children’s day-to-day interactions with their imaginary companions,” Paper presented at the biennial meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Atlanta, GA (April, 2005).

13. Taylor, M., Cartwright, B., and Carlson, S., “A developmental investigation of children’s imaginary companions,” Developmental Psychology 29: 276-285 (1993). 14. Mauro, J., The friend that only I can see: A longitudinal investigation of children’s imaginary companions. (Eugene: University of Oregon, 1991). 15. Benson, R., and Pryor, D., “When friends fall out: Developmental interference with the function of some imaginary companions,” Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association 21: 457-473 (1973).

22. Singer, J., “Imagination and waiting ability in young children,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 29: 396-413 (1961). 23. Barber, T.X., and Glass, L.B., “Significant factors in hypnotic behavior,” Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology 64: 222-228 (1962). 24. Hoff, E., “A friend living inside me--The forms and functions of imaginary companions,” Imagination, Cognition, and Personality 24: 151-189 (2004-2005). 25. Acredolo, L., Goodwyn, S., and Fulmer, A., “Why some children create imaginary companions: Clues from infant and toddler play preferences,” Paper presented at the Society for Research in Child Development, Indianapolis, IN (April, 1995). 26. Kavanaugh, R., Wiley, A., and Taylor, M., “Recollections of a childhood imaginary companion: Implications for later development,” Paper presented at the Conference on Human Development, Charlotte, NC (April, 2002). 27. Marwit, S., and Klass, D., “Grief and the role of the inner representation of the deceased,” in D. Klass, P. R. Silverman and S. L. Nickman (Eds.), Continuing bonds: New understandings of grief. (Philadelphia: Taylor & Francis, 1996) 297-309. 28. Honeycutt, J.M., Ford, S.G., and Gudykunst, W.B., “Mental imagery and intrapersonal communication: A review of research on imagined interactions (IIs) and current developments,” in Communication yearbook 25. (Mahwah, NJ US: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers, 2001) 315-345.

issue 6 Visions

16. Singer, J.L., and Singer, D.G., “Imaginative play and pretending in early childhood: Some experimental approaches,” in A. Davids (Ed.), Child personality and psychopathology: Current topics, vol.3. (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1976) 369-112.

GLIMPSE www.glimpsejournal.com

(This page) A volunteer wears the 19-channel quantitative electroencephalograph (EEG) cap. An experimenter is about to place the Koren Helmet (aka â&#x20AC;&#x153;The God Helmetâ&#x20AC;?) on her head. All images courtesy of the author.

issue 6 Visions

by M. A. Persinger

Other researchers and philosophers had shown that the sense of self is more indicative of a left hemispheric, linguistic process.

O GLIMPSE www.glimpsejournal.com

ne of the assumptions of

The assumption that all experiences are generated

modern neuroscience is that

by brain activity and therefore spiritual and â&#x20AC;&#x153;God

all experiences are caused

experiencesâ&#x20AC;? are generated in a similar manner,

by or correlated with brain

regardless of the ultimate stimulus that produces

structure and activity. The

the experiences, has been a major thrust of our

distinction between cause

research. It started with the examination of the

and correlation is important. Whereas cause

brain bases to the sense of human self. Other

means all experiences are generated by the

researchers and philosophers had shown that the

structure and functions of the brain, correlation

sense of self is more indicative of a left hemispheric,

indicates that the experiences may occur because

linguistic process. That is why language, which is

their intrinsic electromagnetic temporal patterns

primarily a left hemispheric process, and culture

are congruent with specific spatial organizations in

are so important for the definition of the sense

groups of neurons. This means that the essence

of self. Some thinkers have even argued that the

of experiences may exist independently of the

sense of self is a social fiction.

brain and, potentially, be represented in other structures or conditions that are compatible with

We asked the question: If the sense of self is

these intrinsic patterns.

associated with left hemispheric processes, what would happen if we stimulated in the appropriate

Regardless of the ultimate solution to this

manner the right hemisphere? To stimulate

perennial conundrum, the isolation of which

optimally meant that we had to isolate the

patterns of electromagnetic activity are associated

physiologically relevant patterns of activity. We had

with which specific types of experiences requires

found that application of symmetrically-shaped

replication and duplication within the laboratory

magnetic fields, such as 60 Hertz (Hz) sine-waves,

where conditions can be systematically varied

produced little effect on experience unless the

and controlled. Although the scientific method

intensities were much higher than those produced

is probably the most important concept in the

in nature or from induction within the brain.

history of human thought, the experiment is the most powerful tool we have developed to examine

The sources for the magnetic fields were embed-

complex issues.

ded in a helmet that the person wore. We selected a snowmobile helmet because it was available and

The 21-year-old woman sat in a comfortable chair within a darkened acoustic chamber. While also blindfolded and wearing the helmet, a burst-firing magnetic field (known to produce opiate-like effects and pain reduction in rats) was applied once every 3 seconds over her right hemisphere. After the 30 minutes of exposure she reported:

left side. I tried to focus upon its position and when I did, the presence moved. Every time I tried to sense where the presence was, it moved. When it moved to the right side [we shifted to a bilateral presentation of the field] ,

I experienced a deep sense of security like I had not experienced before. I started to cry when I felt it slowly fading away.â&#x20AC;? [We had again shifted the parameters of the field] .

issue 6 Visions

â&#x20AC;&#x153;I felt a presence behind me and along the

sufficiently large to fit most people’s heads. At first we called it the Koren Helmet, after Professor Stanley Koren, my colleague who constructed it. About 20 years ago a newspaper writer in the United Kingdom dubbed it “the God Helmet” and the name has remained.

It is just a helmet that produces programmable computer-generated patterns of weak magnetic fields 24

Effectively, it is just a helmet that produces programmable computer-generated patterns

GLIMPSE www.glimpsejournal.com

of weak magnetic fields between the multiple solenoids embedded on both sides. The only difficult component is the custom-made digital to analogue converter (DAC) software that converts the computer data to the electromagnetic patterns.

he results of being stimulated by the “God Helmet” were striking. When there was slightly more right hemispheric than left hemispheric

stimulation

most

people reported the sense of a presence or the feeling of a Sentient Being. The specific type of sensed presence varied with the person’s expectancies, beliefs, and of course the patterns of the electromagnetic fields that were applied. The characteristics of the experiences were dominated by intense personal meaningfulness and altered

issue 6 Visions

(This page) View of the left side of the Koren Helmet (aka â&#x20AC;&#x153;The God Helmetâ&#x20AC;?). The small solenoids that generate weak magnetic fields through the brain are visible.

When there was slightly more right hemispheric than left hemispheric stimulation, most people reported the sense of a presence or the feeling of a Sentient Being.

26 GLIMPSE www.glimpsejournal.com

T .htm N E ibe T N scr O C ub Y L m/s N O l.co N na O I r T u P o I j e R s SC imp B SU w.gl w w / :/

perceptions of space and time, classic properties of

in left and right temperature was almost

right hemispheric processing. We have suggested

1. That means when the discrepancy was

that the sensed presence is the transient left

1 degree the subjects reported a sensed

hemispheric awareness of the right hemisphere’s

presence.

equivalence to the sense of self.

p t t h

Of course how one remembers these

We recently demonstrated the right hemispheric

ephemeral

source as well as one of the first potentially

laboratory is largely affected by the verbal

macroscopic quantum effects. Using a classic

labels, associated with left hemispheric

equation for producing “double states” we

processing, that are applied at the time

calculated that a difference of only 1 degree Celsius

of the experience. That is one of the

between the right (higher) temporal lobe and the

reasons most of our experiments are

left would be sufficient to produce the spatial

completed without the volunteer or the

discrepancy within the brain to generate a “second

experimenter being aware of the purpose

self.” An appropriately patterned magnetic field

of the experiment (except it is involved with

was applied with greater intensity (about 10%)

relaxation) or the predictions for the effects

over the right temporal region compared to the

from the different pattern of magnetic fields.

left. The slope of the equation for report of a

Direct measurements have indicated the

sensed presence and the amount discrepancy

experiences during the application of the

experiences

within

the

which left hemispheric awareness can represent these inputs primarily from the right hemisphere.

e have concluded that the Sensed

Presence

prototypical

the

process

for

the God Experience, which should

not

confused

with the God Belief. These experiences derive from the “other” which is represented within the right hemisphere. Consequently any stimulus,

magnetic fields occur independently of the person’s hypnotizability or suggestibility.

induced within the brain or body during periods of distress or following specific types of closed

l m ht

head injuries, or, generated naturally within the

the sensed presence to a deceased member

of the family or to a religious icon, atheists

attribute the experiences to their own brains. Essentially the initial experiences are remarkably similar, and indicate the

commonality of all human brains. The differences of interpretation and the details

of the individual’s experience are a function of culture, expectations, and the powerful

nuances associated with the emotional dimension and associational processes of

the substance of thought: words and word images.

p t t h

Not everyone reports a sensed presence even in optimal conditions. Depending

upon the study, the people who don’t report any experiences range between 10 and 20%. They are usually young males or people with minimum introspective capacity. However their brain wave activity indicates a similar increase in coherence between the left and right temporal lobes as those that do report experiences. We suspect these individuals, for a variety of reasons, do not have the verbal images by

the God Experience. If the stimuli were generated

globally, by either man-made or natural processes, then large numbers of people could report these experiences

simultaneously.

They

would

attributed to the explanations given by the local culture.

Because God Experiences are often the primary source of validity for beliefs about the deity to whom or which the experiences are attributed, the occurrence of God Experiences can transform beliefs into actions. If the belief is that people who do not believe in the same deity are less human or even a threat and must be subjugated or eliminated, a process intrinsic to the nature of human group identity, then the occurrence of an experience can contribute to aggressive behaviors. In fact some historians have argued that ethnocentricism, the group extension of egocentricism, with its basis in personal belief in general, and religious belief in particular, has been responsible for the hundreds of millions of human beings who have been killed on this planet. These interpretations are not definitive because they are based upon correlations between

issue 6 Visions

T . N E ibe T N scr O C ub Y s / L ON l.com N na O I T jour P I R pse C S im B SU w.gl w w ://

Whereas people who are religious attribute

environment, would have the potential to induce

GLIMPSE www.glimpsejournal.com

(This page) An experimenter examines the brain electrical field topographic maps, called â&#x20AC;&#x153;microstatesâ&#x20AC;?, derived from a 19-channel digital EEG signal. The characteristics of these topographies help to understand the subtle variations associated with states of consciousness.

behaviors. Without experimental verification we cannot clearly isolate the mechanisms and processes. With the development of personal computers and the software that allowed the generation of extraordinarily complex patterns, we digitized the patterns of actual neurons or groups of neurons that were active while people were reporting meaningful experiences. Many years ago we actually recorded the electroencephalographic electrical seizure-like activity over the right temporal lobe of a woman while (as she later reported) she was experiencing God in the laboratory.

There was no “specific frequency” that elicited these experiences. Instead, specific patterns of irregularly shaped activity that would qualify for phase-modulation or frequency-modulation produced the greatest effects at intensities that would now be encountered in today’s man-made environment such as from computers and electronic devices. It became apparent that, like understanding a spoken sentence, the important information was contained in the structure of the words rather than the loudness. In order to test the efficacy of various computer-generated patterns, a technology was developed that allowed programmable lines of numbers to be translated into voltages between +5 volts and -5 volts. The duration of this voltage in milliseconds was also programmable. We found that a line of numbers between 200 and 10,000 points, with each point or pixel’s duration lasting for between 1 millisecond and 3 milliseconds, generated the most optimal effects when the voltage was sent through small solenoids arranged along the sides of the subject’s head. These small solenoids generated the magnetic, technically electromagnetic, fields.

issue 6 Visions

we digitized the patterns of ...neurons that were active while people were reporting meaningful experiences.

We found that a minimum of 2 kiloseconds (about 30 minutes) of exposure was required for the most intense experiences.

GLIMPSE www.glimpsejournal.com

Initially we embedded the solenoids along each

Contrary to popular interpretations, the

side of a helmet approximately at the level of the

chamber is not comparable or even similar

temporal lobes (just above the ears). When the

to sensory deprivation. The diminishment

computer-generated pulses that were changing

of auditory and visual input allows the

polarity (-5 V to +5 V) were being delivered

contrast enhancement of the subtle effects

every 1 millisecond to 3 milliseconds the time-

from the applied magnetic fields. Subjects

varying magnetic fields were generated through

who are exposed to the same situation but

the two hemispheres of the brain. Again the

are not exposed (sham field condition) to

strengths were very small, in the order of 10 to 100

the appropriate physiologically-patterned

milliGauss (mG) or 1 to 10 microTesla (µT), which

magnetic fields report qualitatively and

are a million times less than that employed with

quantitatively different experiences. [In

the new antidepression technology of Transcranial

fact the most typical report is “nothing”

Magnetic Stimulation (TMS). Intensity does not

or “boring.” When we were required to

always mean a greater effect. For example the

employ a “blind” sham-field group in our

sound pressure for the atmosphere is about a

original clinical trials treating patients with

billion times more intense than the sound pressure

drug-resistant depression following mild to

for hearing a whisper. Yet, you do not hear the

moderate closed head injuries, the major

atmospheric pressure.

difficulty was the dropout rates in the sham

NT e E T rib N O bsc C Y /su L ON l.com N na O I r T u P I jo e R s SC imp B SU w.gl w w / p:/

htt

To increase the effect, the thousands of subjects

m .ht

(no) field groups during the course of the six weekly sessions].

and volunteers who have participated in the experiments, sat in a quiet acoustic chamber,

We found that a minimum of 2 kiloseconds

blindfolded, in complete darkness. This cave-

(about 30 minutes) of exposure was

like condition was found to be essential so that

required for the most intense experiences.

the millions of neurons that would typically be

This latency was similar to the analgesic

involved with passive reconnaissance of the visual

effect, which was equivalent to about

and auditory aspects of the environment could be

4 mg/kg of body weight of morphine,

recruited into the experiences and amplify their

induced by some of these fields in rats.

intensity to allow consciousness awareness.

Our most recent series of experiments with

The 25 -year-old male sat blindfolded within the quiet chamber. A bilateral frequency-modulated pulse, often associated with apprehension, was applied continuously with 1 millisecond pulse durations. After the 30-minute episode he reported:

T . N e E of b â&#x20AC;&#x153;I felt as if there was a bright light inTfront i N scr O C ub Y me. I saw a black spot that became a/skind of L ON l.com N I nfelt a drawn into. I felt funnel...no, tunnel...that O I r T jou P I e forward through it. I Rspinning s C moving, like p S im B SU w.gl began to w feel the presence of people, but I could w // : p tt see them. They were along my sides. There hnot were colorless, gray-looking people. I know I was in the chamber but it was very real. I suddenly felt intense fear and felt ice cold.â&#x20AC;?

issue 6 Visions

l m ht

We discovered... the importance of the precision of the timing of the point durations and patterns of the magnetic fields...In a reverse order, nothing happened. l m

GLIMPSE www.glimpsejournal.com

T .ht N E ibe T N scr O C ub Y s / L ON l.com N na O I r T u P I jo e R s SC imp B SU w.gl w w / p:/

a variety of different types of cell cultures, in order

of the patterns. Other researchers, such

to understand the molecular pathways mediating

as Professor Todd Murphy, who have

these changes, also indicated that at least 30

transformed the patterns very precisely

minutes is required.

to wave files so they can be generated directly

from

personal

computer,

One of the first technical features we discovered

report similar effects. When the temporal

was the importance of the precision of the timing

precision is maintained, the changes in the

of the point durations and patterns of the magnetic

subjectâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s brain activity are very similar even

fields. If the same complex pattern that generated

though the source by which the fields were

the sensed presence, the analgesia in rats, or

generated may be different.

the changes in molecular pathways of cells was

presented in a reverse order, nothing happened.

Like the consequences of many God

In many respects the time dimension for magnetic

Experiences, we have found that the

fields is like the spatial dimension for chemicals

same fields can decrease psychological

and drugs. If one changes one atom on a molecule

depression.

it may have no effect or a completely different

depression, that is not responsive to

effect. For magnetic fields even minute changes in

medication, report marked improvement of

the temporal characteristics can produce no effect

their mood and diminished pain after four

or a different effect.

to five, weekly (for one hour) exposures to

htt

Individuals

who

report

these fields. There are parallel changes, This precision may be one of the reasons that

toward normality, in their brain wave

some researchers report different or no effects.

patterns. The effect is not as evident when

For example some of our Swedish colleagues

the fields are applied over the frontal lobes

found no effect but their fields were generated by

or when the patients sit in the same setting

computers that distorted the temporal precision

but no fields are applied.

from undergraduate students to professors, we have found that even specific changes in the activity of the earthâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s magnetic field can generate the sensed presence. Very weak changes in geomagnetic activity, in the orders of tens of nanoTeslas (nT) over about 15 minutes can result in the sensed presence. In fact the threshold for presence, vestibular sensations of floating

hat are the implications of this

and being uplifted, routinely occur when

research? First, it may allow us

the global geomagnetic activity (amplitude

to understand one of the most

fluctuations with periods between 5 and 20

powerful experiences of human

minutes) is above about 20 nT.

l m ht

T . N E ibe T N scr O C ub Y s / L ON l.com N na O I T jour P I R pse C S im B SU w.gl w w :// existence: the God Experience.

It has been employed as an explanation for being

Our animal and human research also shows

and a rationalization for the structure and evolution

that the right hemisphere of the human

of civilizations. The simulation of the Sensed Presence

brain, which is structurally quite different

within the laboratory does not prove that God

from the left hemisphere, is particularly

does not exist. Because of the definition of God, as

sensitive to both static magnetic anomalies

invisible, nonphysical, infinite and omnipresent, the

and geomagnetic variations. We have been

word constitutes an empty hypothesis. It would be

investigating the possibility that information

equivalent to stating you believe that all things are

could be discerned under certain states

caused by non-physical, invisible, pink elephants. You

by the right hemisphere that would allow

cannot prove they are not there.

individuals access to knowledge to which they would typically be oblivious.

The research does indicate we can isolate the

patterns that generate the experiences. If we can

The subject matter of science has always

induce these crude changes with a computer, a

been the unknown. The process of science

few coils of wire and circuits, one can imagine what

is the pursuit of the unknown. With the

future technologies might accomplish. Suppose the

modern technologies that allow specific

transmission of the critical pattern could be employed

imaging of brain functions and the

to induce spiritual experiences in millions of people

escalating complexity of electromagnetic

and these experiences are manipulated by those in

fields from communication systems, there

charge of the intrinsic hierarchy in all social groups

is a â&#x20AC;&#x153;virtualâ&#x20AC;? cerebral environment being

to give validity to explanations for adversity or for

created that may encourage alternative

the subjugation of others? Suppose there are natural

experiences that could be labelled spiritual

conditions that could precipitate these experiences.

or God Experiences. Measurement and the

p t t h

willingness to consider infinite possibilities During our last 20 years of research that have involved

may allow an informed glimpse of our

thousands of subjects and hundreds of experiments,

future. w

issue 6 Visions

experiencing the first stages of a sensed

GLIMPSE Glimpse www.glimpsejournal.com

(This page) Interior, looking towards Francescaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Legend of the True Cross series in the Basilica San Francesco, Arezzo, Italy. Image courtesy of Jakob Montrasio, MK Media Productions.

by Robert Belton and Bernd Kersten issue 6 Visions

iero della Francesca, like many other artists of the Renaissance, sometimes used linear perspective despite the fact that it would be impossible to view his work from the correct station point when on display. While some have seen this as incompetence, others maintain that artists use perspective primarily as an artistic tool that can be manipulated to achieve any expressive end. Although Piero’s treatises reveal him to have been mathematically astute, his De prospettiva pingendi concerns not an objective search for natural optics but perspective modified by artistic license. For him, perspective was not merely a technical convention for representing a physically correct world. It was just one of many devices that could be adapted for use for other, non-optical ends. Our hypothesis is that the perspective in Piero’s fresco cycle depicting The Legend of the True Cross in the cappella maggiore of San Francesco in Arezzo is less about coherent space than about drawing attention to important narrative details. In confirming this empirically, however, we also learned that vision (i.e. “perception”) alone was not enough. An understanding of the spiritual and political motivations leading to the commission was also necessary to fully understand the meaning or intended Vision of the work, by which the artist hoped to instill in the viewer a sense of spiritual rapture.

During free viewing, eye movements were measured to indicate where the observer’s attention was. Piero depicted The Legend of the True Cross in ten parts, nine of which are drawn from a 13th-century chronicle of saints called the Legenda Aurea (Golden Legend) of Jacobus de Voragine. The tenth scene is The Annunciation, which is not usually included but seems to have been introduced to parallel a theme of divine intervention in human affairs, as will be made clear below. The frescoes are not arranged chronologically, for the story starts at the

GLIMPSE www.glimpsejournal.com

top right, moves down one level on the same wall, jumps left to the right hand side of the back wall, slides down and left on the back wall, jumps over to the right wall again, and so on. While some assert that the chaotic arrangement of the episodes was fairly typical of the era, other writers have taken great pains to introduce other readings based on other criteria. One such writer is James Beck, whose

(Above) Interior, looking towards Francesca’s Legend of the True Cross series in the Basilica San Francesco, Arezzo, Italy. Image courtesy of the authors.

interpretation of the cycle is mostly indifferent to conventional narrative and chronology,

of Adam, “is attracted by the nude man leaning

replacing them with a sense that the real integrity

on a shepherd’s staff;” “the clouds, rendered as

of the work is so purely visual that overall design

foreshortened, also lead the eye to the miniatur-

trumps meaning. His objective, he states, “is to offer

ized pair [of Seth and the Archangel Michael];”

a convincing, commonsensical reading of the cycle

and “the viewer is asked to read the picture from

without demands for an esoteric explanation.” In

right to left” (Beck 61). He frequently alludes to

the course of this reading, Beck makes frequent as-

the “entry function” of certain details, by which

sertions regarding what the painting leads the eye

he means those elements that attract the eye first

to do. For instance, “The eye of the viewer from

and set into motion predictable patterns of eye

the floor below,” he writes of The Death and Burial

movements (63, 69, 73–4, etc.).

We discovered that subjects’ scan paths did not corroborate Beck’s descriptions, that certain other details were consistently noted (or not noted) by all the subjects. In addition, verbally presented contextual information caused subjects to supplement

characteristics of the work actually do direct

their vision, as it were, with something approximating

viewers’ eye movements in the ways Beck

the Vision intended in the work. In other words, we

described. We showed sixteen student research

suspected that the images themselves were merely

subjects postcard reproductions of the frescoes

springboards for imagined interpretations based

on a 17-inch screen placed at reading distance

less on what subjects saw and more on knowledge

so the viewing angle was similar to the situation

they could deploy to make sense of the images. We

in front of the originals (seen from a much larger

reasoned that in a particular historical context, then,

distance). During free viewing, eye movements

these fragments would be gradually corralled into

were measured to indicate where the observer’s

compliance with a top-down interpretation of what

attention was. At the fixation point only about

the Vision of the chapel as a whole was to be.

2 degrees of viewing angle are consciously processed for about 330 milliseconds on average.

The Death and Burial of Adam provides a clear

The parts of the painting that are not attended

falsification of Beck’s assertions: The scan paths of

to obviously remain undetected. Fourteen of

all subjects showed that his identification of the

the sixteen subjects had neither training in art

nude youth as the point of visual entry is incorrect,

history nor any theological training that would

for their visual entries (first saccades) differed from

significantly influence the sequence of eye

individual to individual. (Note that for clarity we

movements (i.e., scan path). Two of the subjects

reproduce only one subject’s scan path.) None of our

had taken courses in art history, including a survey

subjects paid attention to the diminutive figures of

of the Renaissance.

Seth and the Archangel in the background just right

Each of the presentations, which followed the chronology of the Voragine story, lasted 10 seconds,

issue vol3.1 6 Visions

Our original intention was to ask if the formal

the images themselves were merely springboards for imagined interpretations

and each subject was subsequently interviewed for 50 seconds to ascertain what

of center, yet we are told this tiny sequence is key to

he or she understood of the fresco cycle. The

the tale: The Archangel gives Seth seeds instead of

first part of the latter was mostly a matter of

a healing oil requested by Adam, setting into motion

undirected listening, in keeping with recent

the growth of the tree that eventually provides the

research by Paul Locher, et al., while the second

wood of Christ’s cross. If viewers do not see this, it

involved the provision of additional background

would have to be explained as relevant to the Vision

information (excerpts from the Golden Legend

rather than understood strictly from the depiction,

and documentary evidence regarding the historical

providing clear evidence that the Vision is in part the

context) to see how such information affected the

result of an interpretive performance of a narrative

subjects’ conclusions.

and not just the result of vision.

GLIMPSE www.glimpsejournal.com

(Facing page, below) The Adoration of the Holy Wood and the Meeting of Solomon with the Queen of Sheba: None of the subjects paid any attention to a horseman on the left whom Beck identified as the point of visual entry. All research subjects followed the perspective thrust to the center of the image, and all realized the visual centrality of the sacred wood to the theme of the chapel as a whole after prompting. None knew that the wood was discarded because it was unworkable, making it a part of the story that would have to be told. The contemporary metaphorical implications of the tale would also have to be recounted rather than seen. I refer to the use of the liberation of the True Cross to imply a need for a new Crusade, an intervention in the Middle East to address the fall of Constantinople to the Mamluk Turks in 1453. We’ll return to the significance of that in a moment. Image courtesy of the authors. (This page, above) The Burial of the Wood: All the subjects reported this image to be of relatively little interest, but The Burial, we note in passing, was an action driven by Solomon’s unillustrated realization that the wood threatened the end of a distinct, Jewish state. This, too, would have to be told. Image courtesy of the authors.

issue vol3.1 6 Visions

(Facing page, above) The Death and Burial of Adam provides a clear falsification of Beck’s assertions: The scan paths of all subjects showed that his identification of the nude youth as the point of visual entry is incorrect, for their visual entries (first saccades) differed from individual to individual. (Note that for clarity we reproduce only one subject’s scan path.) None of our subjects paid attention to the diminutive figures of Seth and the Archangel in the background just right of center, yet we are told this tiny sequence is key to the tale: The Archangel gives Seth seeds instead of a healing oil requested by Adam, setting into motion the growth of the tree that eventually provides the wood of Christ’s cross. If viewers do not see this, it would have to be explained as relevant to the Vision rather than understood strictly from the depiction, providing clear evidence that the Vision is in part the result of an interpretive performance of a narrative and not just the result of vision. Image courtesy of the authors.

(Right) The Annunciation to the Virgin Mary: Several subjects stated that they found this to be the most interesting or satisfying of the cycle, and all acknowledged that they could understand the scene as a type of divine intervention like that in The Dream of Constantine, which is directly opposite to it on the back wall. None of the students exhibited scan paths in which the wooden bar or other horizontals “carry the eye across the pictorial field,” as Beck suggested (76). The scan paths of all, however, followed them smoothly into the perspective of the Virgin’s portico, which terminates at her head. Image courtesy of the authors.

APPARITIONS VIRGIN MARY of the

pparitions of the Virgin Mary have appeared all over the world—from Mexico to Egypt to France— and there are certain characteristics that each sighting shares. Although thousands may visit a site where the apparition has been glimpsed, the actual “seeing” of the Blessed Virgin is usually reserved for a privileged few—these individuals being mostly women and children. Others who make pilgrimages to Marian shrines to hear the Virgin’s often apocalyptic messages and prescriptive solutions via the seer, or to be healed by Mary’s divine powers, must rely on other cues: the sudden smell of rose petals, the unusual activity of the sun or clouds, or the changing color of rosary beads that are often reported around the place where the Virgin has singularly or serially appeared. According to Religious Studies scholar Sandra L. Zimdars-Swartz, “Apparitions usually involve an important communication—about the death of a loved one, for example, or about a valuable object that has been lost, or about what needs to be done in an impending crisis. This communication usually assumes a particular importance in the case of religious apparitions in which the being or beings who appear are understood by the seers and their communities as important figures in a clearly defined religious tradition.” (Encountering Mary: from La Salette to Medjugorje. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1991, 4).

issue 6 Visions

(Left) The Dream of Constantine: All subjects showed some degree of fixation around the angel, as if exploring it for meaning. None of the subjects actually fixated or commented on the tiny cross held by the angel, which tempts us to say that this part of the narrative would also have to be performed, since it is not clear from the visual details alone that the angel is saying, as it were, “In this sign ye shall conquer.” Image courtesy of the authors.

The messages that the Virgin brings to a community can be local or global in scope, but they often center around suffering caused by a loss of faith: When the Virgin appeared to two children at La Salette in the French Alps in 1846, she attributed the community’s failing potato crops to the people’s neglect in attending mass and their general flouting of Christianity. Just as Mary serves as a divinity intervening on behalf of God to warn humans of their error, she is also sympathetic towards humanity. The Marian apparition who appeared to the rural children in Fatima, Portugal in 1917—one of today’s most popular and devoted shrines to the Virgin—has been credited with ending World War II and protecting Pope John Paul II from a failed assassination attempt. Although much substantiation for Marian apparitions remain based in faith, the meticulous detail with which the seer is able to visualize a supernatural being apart from a dream and the fervor with which the devotees of the Virgin attest to the seer’s vision, certainly causes us to reflect on the power of imagining. “And the fact that these quasi-cognitive experiences are preceded by suffering and a sense of crisis and come to focus in a vision or an awareness of a maternal presence (perhaps a symbol of the sufferer’s lost paradise) may explain the immense psychic energy with which representations of these experiences are cathected and defended,” explains Zimdars-Swartz. (Ibid., 270). -R. Sapin

GLIMPSE www.glimpsejournal.com

(Above) The Battle of Constantine and Maxentius: Perhaps because of the extensive surface damage to this fresco, scan paths varied widely with this image, as if subjects were struggling to make visual sense of it. Prompting produced greater narrative understanding but little additional interest. The Battle is chronologically followed by another unillustrated element, the conversion of Constantine and his injunction to his mother Helen to discover the True Cross (which in turn precipitated The Torment of the Jew in an attempt to trace the Cross’s whereabouts). Image courtesy of the authors. (Left) The Torment of the Jew: In contrast to the other scenes with architecture, this one provoked virtually no scanning of the structure on the left, thus falsifying Beck’s assertion that the point of visual entry is that building’s sharp foreshortening (69). All subjects required prompting to relate the scene to the narrative. That is, while the torture is visually made clear to the observer, its significance can’t be understood without instruction. Image courtesy of the authors.

issue 6 Visions

(Above) The Discovery of the Three Crosses and the Proof of the True Cross: This scene provided a more consistent point of visual entry in that all subjects started generally at the center but eventually follow the perspective down to The Proof (particularly to the female attendant just behind Helen, curiously.) Perhaps because of surface damage, the subjectsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; scan paths exhibited little prolonged interest in the left half of the image. Subjects exhibited little interest in the cityscape beyond until prompted with information about Arezzo as a metaphor for Jerusalem, as might be expected if the narrative were performed to draw attention to the contemporary need to take arms against the threat in the Holy Land. Image courtesy of the authors.

GLIMPSE www.glimpsejournal.com

(Above) The Victory of Heraclius over Chosroes: Scan paths contradicted Beck’s contention that the white lance at the left constitutes the point of visual entry (73–4). Image courtesy of the authors.

This investigation shows that the formal

that

characteristics of the frescoes do not

narrative elements are actually not

number

generally direct viewers’ eye movements in

depicted—e.g., the discarding of the

the ways described by Beck, leading us to

wood, Solomon’s anticipation of the

conclude that his account is an individual,

end of the Jewish state—supports the

imaginative engagement brought to the

hypothesis that additional, non-pictorial

work rather than found within it. Indeed, we

information must be provided for a full

found as many different types of scan paths

understanding and experience of the

as different subjects. But with prompting,

work’s intended Vision. We conclude

we did find consistency in subjects’ reports

that there are empirical reasons to give

as to the Visionary meaning of the cycle.

interpretive priority to historical context

That consistency must be explained, then,

because viewers’ attention is seized by

not by vision but by context—priming via

picture details from which interpreters

interpretations provided by interlocutors

launch

in positions of some authority. Moreover,

themselves historical.

into

ostensibly

explanations

that

key

are

proper (i.e., Enoch and Elias, who greeted the

the Arezzo cycle is not coherent illusionism but

Beato in the Terrestrial Paradise, according to the

a type of narrative focusing in which key objects

legend of the saint written by one Nanni d’Arezzo

or actions are placed at vanishing points or along

in 1302.) In the latter, the Beato Benedetto is seen

key orthogonals, providing opportunities for

in a Vision that reveals him to be a divine mediator

the subsequent articulation of the Vision via the

between Saint Francis and Franciscan activities in

presentation of non-pictorial information by the

the Holy Land—one capable of using the sign of

key stakeholders. We know almost nothing about

the True Cross to perform conversions. Similarly,

Piero’s own religious motivations, so we turn

in The Annunciation, the Virgin Mary experiences

instead to the users of the chapel. Jeryldine Wood

a Vision of her role in the fundamental message

provides the most useful summary in this regard. Wood maintains that the cycle makes sense as a meditation on several important characters to Franciscans at the time, the most important but least known of whom was Beato Benedetto Sinigardi, who took vows from Saint Francis himself in the early13th-century, who eventually became

with prompting, we did find consistency in subjects’ reports as to the Visionary meaning of the cycle.

Provincial Minister for the Holy Land in 1221, who participated in negotiations to unite the Greek

of human redemption afforded by the True Cross

and Latin churches, and who cured and converted

and, facing her, Constantine experiences a Vision

a Saracen woman with the sign of the cross.

of his role in redemption when he dreams that

Importantly, Wood states that the Beato’s legend

his victory in battle will be secure if he believes in

explains the appearance of one unconventional

the sign of the same Cross that could, in another

episode in the cycle, The Annunciation, and

era, convert a Saracen woman. There is thus a

unidentified characters painted in another hand

narrative chain linking the themes of redemption

that are not usually considered part of the work

and faith in the Cross to a justification for

issue 6 Visions

The principle function of spatial perspective in

church reunification and defense against Islamic

example, Renaissance perspective might be

territorial expansion in the Middle East, but one’s

“incorrect” merely because it places emphasis

understanding of it is largely non-visual. That

on directing attention for the purpose of

the Beato is buried and commemorated in San

narrative explanation. In contrast, the Counter-

Francesco means that the friars were symbolically

Reformation led Baroque artists to emphasize

communicating “An unbroken lineage dating to

naturalism to engage the senses and ensure

the birth of the order via Beato Benedetto, who

that viewers “get the message” rather directly.

personally took vows from the founder,” as well as

Consequently, Fra Andrea Pozzo’s Allegory

a “desire to promote Franciscan unity” against a

of the Jesuits’ Missionary Work on the ceiling

common enemy, as it were. A visitor’s Vision, then,

of Sant’Ignazio in Rome (1691–4) provides

is a construct or imposition of these ideas by those

a more consistent spatial illusion than does

“in the know.”

Piero’s True Cross, even to the point of making it clear that there is only one right place to

GLIMPSE www.glimpsejournal.com

Our subjects reported that the most compelling

stand. But Piero did not share the Counter-

element of the cycle was The Annunciation. This

Reformation’s drive to create an illusion so

scene makes the least sense in terms of the Golden

powerful that “transubstantiation [seems] ‘easy’

Legend, but Wood’s explanation in the light of

and credible,” so that Heaven is accessible,

the Beato’s legend accommodates it perfectly:

sensuous and immediate,

She writes, “The Beato’s Angelus . . . extols the

conscious allusion to the doctrinal confirmation

Annunciate Virgin in its very first lines, ‘The angel

of transubstantiation in the second phase of

of the Lord declared unto Mary. And she conceived

the Council of Trent (1551–52). Perhaps it isn’t

of the Holy Spirit,’ up to its final supplication, ‘Pray

too flippant to state that Pozzo’s perspective

for us O holy Mother of God. That we may be

directly says, “Go towards the light,” while

worthy of the promises of Christ’” (Wood 63). An

Piero’s leads us to a place where someone else

association between the Virgin Mary, Constantine

can say, “Fight the good fight.”

with or without

in battle, and the Beato Benedetto would remind viewers “of their historical custody of sacred places

We conclude, therefore, that the Vision in

as the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem

the Renaissance was the product of “vision +

and the Virgin’s house in Nazareth” (Wood 63–4).

data.” By contrast, the Vision in the Baroque was Vision, tout court. w

We find that any individual’s interpretation of the way paintings themselves direct attention can be tested empirically, and we suggest that perspective is sometimes used less to create a coherent illusionistic space than to draw attention to key parts of the narrative—visual footholds for the delivery of non-visual, contextual information. Differences

the

function

perspective

and contextual information reveal instructive contrasts

larger

historical

attitudes.

For

Endnotes 1.

Perceptual psychologists have identified four types of spatial perspective on a two dimensional surface. (1) In classically “correct” perspective, the proper viewing point can be occupied and the perspective becomes profoundly illusionistic. However, perspective is still “robust”—that is, readable as space—even when (2) the viewing point of the observer is incorrect or (3) when there are inconsistencies of spatial information in the image. When (2) observers are in the wrong position, they can still easily imagine seeing the scene from the correct standpoint, leading Michael Kubovy to conclude from a psychological

perspective is sometimes used...to draw attention to key parts of the narrativeâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;visual footholds for the delivery of non-visual, contextual information.

issue 6 Visions

(Above) The Return of the True Cross to Jerusalem: None of the untrained subjects commented on the specific role of the bearer of the True Cross. Only the two art-trained subjects were able to conclude that the figureâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s bare feet indicated holy ground. Image courtesy of the authors.

point of view that this arrangement may induce a kind of “out-of-body” feeling that is construed as spiritual (Michael Kubovy, The Psychology of Perspective and Renaissance Art [Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986], passim). In the case of (3) an image exhibiting spatial inconsistencies, observers seem only to register the inconsistency unconsciously, making it possible for artists to exploit inconsistencies (or “incorrect” perspective) for other ends, like directing eye movements to details which otherwise would not be attended to. (See Kersten, B., & Belton, R., 2007, “Inconsistent perspective and emotional expression in art works” Perception 36 ECVP Abstract Supplement; and Kersten, B., Belton, R., & Hartmann, M. (2008). “Guiding Visual Behavior through Perspective Cues and Its Emotional Effect in Artworks.” IAEA08 Proceedings, 72-74. [www.science-of-aesthetics.org/proceedings/ IAEA08%20Proceedings%20Tuesday%20Aug19.pdf]). Additionally, because the spatial and emotional systems are interconnected in the human brain, (4) inconsistent spatial perspective may itself induce an arousal affect (like “alarm,” “beware,” or “something is wrong”). 2.

GLIMPSE Glimpse www.glimpsejournal.com

For instance, Peter and Linda Murray saw the two distinct viewpoints of Paolo Uccello’s Funerary Monument to Sir John Hawkwood (1436) as symptoms of someone who had “never really mastered the implications of the system. See their Art of the Renaissance (New York: Praeger, 1963), 113–14. Others explain by alluding to mathematical imprecision in the terminology of certain important treatises on perspective. See, for example, Judy Green and Paul S. Green, “Alberti’s Perspective: A Mathematical Comment,” The Art Bulletin 69. 4 (December 1987): 641–645. Still others allude to an indifference to the physical constraints placed on viewers due to a conception of representations as existing on a Platonically ideal plane of existence. See John Fisher, “Some New Problems in Perspective,” British Journal of Aesthetics 27.3 (Summer 1987): 201–212, particularly his allusion to Kenneth Clark (203). A thorough discussion of the types of analyses and positions regarding perspective is available in Kim H. Veltman, “Literature on Perspective: A Select Bibliography (1971–1984),” Marburger Jahrbuch für Kunstwissenschaft 21 (1986): 185–207. More recent publications turn on such matters as cultural analysis and the critique of the hegemony of vision. See, for example, Alberto Pérez-Gómez and Louise Pelletier, Architectural Representation and the Perspective Hinge (Cambridge: MIT, 1997).

M. H. Pirenne, “Vision and Art,” in E. C. M. Carterette &. P. Friedman , eds., Handbook of Perception: V. Seeing (New York: Academic Press, 1975), 433–490.

See, for example, Dominique Raynaud, “Understanding Errors in Perspective,” in R. Boudon, M. Cherkaoui, and P. Demeulenaere, eds., The European Tradition in Qualitative Research (London: Sage, 2003), vol. 1: 147–65. See also James Elkins, The Poetics of Perspective (Ithaca: Cornell, 1994), 136–38; and Michael Kubovy, The Psychology of Perspective and Renaissance Art (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986), passim. Piero’s other two treatises were Trattato d’abaco and Libellus de quinque corporibus regularibus.

For example, Marilyn Aronberg Lavin, Piero della Francesca (New York: Abrams, 1992), 33.

James Beck, “Piero della Francesca at San Francesco in Arezzo: An Art-Historical Peregrination,” Artibus et Historiae 24.47 (2003): 79.

Curiously, Beck does acknowledge that at least one type of art historical reading yields a kind of fiction, aligning his thinking very slightly with one thread in of the ongoing postmodern critique of traditional art history, but he seems only to have biography in mind (Beck 54).

Paul Locher, Elizabeth A. Krupinski, Claudia MelloThoms, and Calvin F. Nodine, “Visual Interest in Pictorial Art during an Aesthetic Episode,” unpublished paper prepared for submission, 30pp. Loaned by the first author.

If recent research is correct, Piero started the work in 1457 or shortly thereafter instead of the traditional assumption of 1452. See Giuseppe Centauro and Enzo Settesoldi, Piero della Francesca: Committenza e pittura nella chiesa di San Francesco ad Arezzo (con nuovi documenti inediti) (Siena: Poggibonsi, 2000), 89. However, the specificity of this event does not really matter, since Popes Eugenius IV and Pius II were engaged in new Crusades, so to speak, as early as 1448 and as late as 1464. See Abbas Hamdani, “Columbus and the Recovery of Jerusalem,” Journal of the American Oriental Society 99.1 (January–March 1979): 39–48. Some scholars doubt the connection or downplay it in favor of an interpretation involving unstable Aretine-Florentine relations. See, for instance, Aronberg Lavin, 34. Another treatment of the issue is Robert Black, “The Uses and Abuses of Iconology: Piero della Francesca and Carlo Ginzburg,” Oxford Art Journal 9.2 (1986): 67–71. In any case, it doesn’t matter in this context, since our point is that some narrative elements, whatever they are, would have to be performed to be understood.

10. B. Ligi, Il convento e la chiesa dei minori conventuali e la libera università degli studi di Urbino (Urbino: Memorie storiche, 1972), 9ff. 11. Jeryldine M. Wood, “Piero’s Legend of the True Cross and the Friars of San Francesco [Sansepolcro],” in J. M. Wood, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Piero della Francesca (New York: Cambridge, 2002), 51–65, 205–14. Also very useful in this regard is Marilyn Aronberg Lavin, The Place of Narrative: Mural Decoration in Italian Churches, 431-1600 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990). 12. Wood 64–5. Ut Sacra Ordinis Minorum Religio, a bull issued by Pope Eugenius IV in 1446, was intended to bring the matter to a close with formal approval of the Observants’ office of Vicar General, which the Conventuals resisted. Despite the bull, the debate was still vigorous until at least 1517, when it was addressed again in Leo X’s bull Omnipotens Deus. 13. Wylie Sypher (1978), quoted in Kubovy, 43. See also Vittorio De Feo, Andrea Pozzo: Architettura e illusione (Roma: Officina, 1988). 14. Anthony Blunt, Artistic Theory in Italy, 1450–1600 (New York: Clarendon, 1940).

Tara Describes a Photograph to Me Act 1 When I found it I had been hidden from myself all day If there had been a curtain I might have heard it open To reveal the lattice work we call was and was not When I found it it was this quiet and my hand Suddenly knew something like a schoolboy’s scabbed knee I stood up into a piece of sunlight and listened hard

Act 2 A curtain being pulled is a mouth getting ready The sound of it opening can be sad sometimes Because it’s the afternoon and you don’t know anymore

Act 3 That’s my mom with no idea she’s in the frame Her milk-soft lips parted like a crack in ice Look how excited she is to be invisible but alive Should I eat this sitting here in my living room beyond Alone should I accept how I’m the little girl peeking From behind her skirt back at the lens What could she be saying what am I Saying now with her already gone In my hand that I keep steady every day

issue 6 Visions

When I found it I was all clutter and echo Pilfering myself tearing at things I could not see No one knew because I am good at gloss and gesture

- Arto Vaun

GLIMPSE www.glimpsejournal.com

darkness and isolation. .produce alterations of consciousness

Decoding the Neurological Basis of Shamanic Visions An interview with Michael Winkelman by Carolyn Arcabascio GLIMPSE journal: What first drew you to the study of Shamanism, and specifically, to understanding the biological and neurological processes involved in the spiritual activities of shamans? I was drawn to the study of shamanism by the possibility that it had some universal or cross-cultural status. And these “shamanic universals,” as I call them, led me to search apparent from the many physical techniques used to alter consciousness. Psychedelic plants, for example, are crucial pieces of evidence, since they so reliably induce not only altered states of consciousness, but also a very specific set of experiences. This is what I came to recognize as neurognosis, biologically-based processes of knowing, which alter our experience of the world and the capacities of consciousness. You’ve written that aspects of the animal ritual activities of our evolutionary ancestors are preserved in shamanism. For example, you discuss drumming as a “widespread mammalian adaptation,” but symbolic healing achieved through the visionary experiences of altered states of consciousness as a uniquely human practice. What is the earliest evidence we have of when shamans began to develop and employ these more sophisticated cognitive capacities? What sort of early records exist that tell of shamanic visions? Evidence for the emergence of a human visionary capacity comes in direct and indirect forms. The emergence of what is considered modern human culture occurred some 40,000 years ago in what is called the Middle/Upper Paleolithic transition. Significant evidence of the presence of shamanic practices is found in the same evidence of this (Left) Petroglyph from the Coso Range, California. Known as the “Coso Rain Shaman,” due to the ethnographic association between this region and weather shamanism. This figure has bird-claw feet and the concentric circle face that is particularly characteristic of the anthropomorphic figures in this region. The interior body design is believed to represent the shaman’s ritual shirt which was painted with entoptic designs. The engraving is less than 1500 years old. Image courtesy of David S. Whitley.

cognitive evolution of humans. Some of the earliest direct evidence would be the still-preserved Paleolithic cave art in Europe, where it is found in association with the origins of modern human culture. Some of this dramatic art has been seen as evidence of activities designed to induce altered states of consciousness, since the features of cave sites such as

issue 6 Visions

for their suggested biological basis. That human biology is important in shamanism is

symbols of

shamanic soul flight in cultures around the world

“bird-men,” combining human and avian features.. are seen as

GLIMPSE www.glimpsejournal.com

(Above) Pictographs from White Shaman shelter, Texas. These Archaic period Pecos River style paintings have been dated to 5000–3000 years before present (ybp). The central white anthropomorphic figure has been interpreted as a possible participant in a prehistoric peyote cult. Image courtesy of David S. Whitley.

darkness and isolation have the ability to produce alterations of consciousness. Some sites provide evidence of percussion instruments and bird bone flutes, and areas with primarily heel marks, as opposed to full foot imprints, suggesting that ritual dances took place. Other features of this art that suggest the use of caves for inducing altered states of consciousness include a variety of non-symbolic representations that resemble entoptic phenomena, autogenous images that occur spontaneously during a variety of altered states of consciousness. Prominent shamanic features of other images include representations of shamanic practices such as the soul flight, visionary experiences, death/dream states, human-animal identities and animal powers. Significant depictions of shamanic flight include “bird-men,” combining human and avian features that are seen as symbols of shamanic soul flight in cultures around the world. Other evidence of shamanic altered states of consciousness has been inferred from the “wounded man” themes that may represent the shamanic death and rebirth experience. The depiction of humans transformation power of shamans and the animal powers that they controlled. One of the most impressive human representations include the famed Sorcerer of Les Trois Fréres; this and other similar figures combining human and animal elements have no convincing explanation apart from shamanism. The indirect evidence of the presence of shamanic visions in a far more distant past is based on inferences and knowledge regarding the neurological bases of visions. This requires combining information regarding: the dream capacity; the emergence of capacities such as long distance running; and the capacities for self-representation. First is the visual capacity that underlies dreaming. This is an ancient mammalian adaptation, but not sufficient for the out-of-body experience (OBE). The OBE requires a body-based self representation that apparently emerged about 1-2 million years ago as part of a set of adaptations that led to mimesis, the ability to represent intentionally with the body. This mimetic ability was likely a side-effect of adaptations for the ability for long-distance running. This running capacity is a uniquely human capacity that not only has a variety of adaptive advantages, but which also produces a variety of mystical experiences, including the OBE. So I infer that once we had the capacity for long distance running we began to have these experiences spontaneously. And if we ran for our lives to the safety of our group, and collapsed into the protective

iscovered in 1914 in the cave known as Les Trois Frères located in the French Pyrenees, The Sorcerer is a two-and-a-half foot anthropomorphic engraving dating back to around 13000 before common era (bce). Standing erect, with stag antlers and the eyes of an owl, the painted figure hovers 15 feet above the ground over hundreds of other Paleolithic animal engravings that line the subterranean walls in a section of Les Trois Frères known as the Sanctuary. Scholars have interpreted The Sorcerer as a pictorial representation of a shamanic trance state, where the Shaman serves as liaison between the human and spirit world.

-R. Sapin

TROIS FRèRES

Les

issue 6 Visions

prominently involves figures that combine human and animal features, a reflection of the animal

environs of our clan cave or the boughs of a tree, I suspect that the exhaustion combined with extensive physical stimulation led to emergence of lucid dreaming and OBEs. These experiences provided a variety of cognitive adaptations—review and rehearsal, which are fundamental functional features of dreams—as well as the ability to use the self-awareness decoupled from the body to explore the internal representations of our psychological states as well as the external world. Can you describe what happens in the brain when shamans achieve an altered state of consciousness through external agents and processes? Shamanic forms of altered consciousness involve manipulation of the autonomic nervous system, which ultimately produces a slowing of the brain wave discharges into a more synchronized and coherent pattern. It also results in relaxation, drowsiness, and apparent unconsciousness. I say apparent because the shaman continues to have experiences although appearing unconsciousness. These conditions of altered consciousness also involve an integration of the various levels of the brain. In essence, the lower brain’s patterns come to dominate the frontal cortex, which is synchronized by the slow waves of the limbic system. Agents and procedures that invoke this pattern include drugs such as hallucinogens, amphetamines, cocaine, marijuana; endogenous opiates; long-distance running; hunger, thirst, and sleep loss; auditory stimuli such as drumming

and chanting; sensory deprivation; dream states; meditation; and a variety of psychophysiological imbalances or sensitivities resulting from injury, trauma, disease, or hereditarily transmitted nervous

GLIMPSE www.glimpsejournal.com

system conditions. Neurobiologist Arnold Mandell proposed that these agents and activities link the R(reptilian)Complex, or behavioral brain, with the limbic, or emotional brain. This results from the reduction of the “gating” of emotional responses in the hippocampus, which also frees the visual cortex from the normal inhibitory processes, releasing an internal visual system that underlies the dream processes. It is considered a visual symbolic system that preceded language. Although not unique to shamanism, these activities in the brain manifest for shamans as soul flight or out-of-body experiences. Shamanic practices and rituals create a greater level of excitation in the body and nervous system by pushing it to exhaustion. In the collapse phase, the person may remain insensible to the external world, but the brain’s dream dynamic is activated, and with training, shamans can deliberately manipulate this

MOST OF THE BRAIN’S NERVE “WIRING” IS BOTTOM-UP, OR ASCENDING, FROM LOWER STRUCTURES TO HIGHER STRUCTURES

inner symbolic world. Does the interaction between unconscious and conscious regions of the brain allow for this kind of deliberate manipulation? Most of the brain’s nerve “wiring” is bottom-up, or ascending, from lower structures to higher structures. The converse is very limited. Hence you can rationally decide that smoking cigarettes is dangerous to your health but the addiction is maintained at lower levels, and your rationalizations about quitting can

be powerless in the face of the lower biological urges. Consequently, when we can enter into those lower dynamics we have a greater ability to control them, as well as higher cognitive processes. Hence the altered state of consciousness, which takes us into the emotional brain, can have very powerful effects. The visual/visioning system is one of these systems that operates through the lower brain structures, as opposed to the higher structures that manage language. Hence the power of images to evoke emotions, and vice versa. Using images to evoke emotions is one of the ways in which shamanic healing can have its effects, since these visual symbolic systems

visual symbolic systems are directly involved in the organic responses of the bodY

are directly involved in the organic responses of the body.

In your view, do shamanic healing techniques and visionary practices have a place within modern

T e N E rib T N bsc O C /su Y L om N O al.c N rn O I u o T j P I pse R SC glim B SU ww. /w / : p

m t h .

There are many applications of visualization and shamanic healing practices in contemporary medicine. Perhaps the most noted application of visualization has been in the treatment of cancer, where we discovered decades ago the usefulness of visualizing the bodyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s healing processes. Altered states of consciousness can facilitate many aspects of healing, including relief of pain and stress and focus of attention. Meditation has been shown to be an effective tool for many conditions, and the use of hypnosis is also an area in which many different conditions are being successfully treated through alterations of consciousness. Other shamanic therapies are found in drumming, dance, dance movement therapy, and music therapyâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;activities that a growing body of research shows are effective treatments.

Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re also just beginning to discover the healing power of belief in the spirit world. Whether or not we think that spirits are empirically real, the power of a belief in a spiritual being to affect our health

htt

is an empirical reality. Conceptions of the spirit world can provide important therapeutic resources, where spirits represent unconscious dynamics, as well as mental and psychosocial processes. Ritual is also a powerful tool for eliciting the unconscious powers of our mind and the healing capacities of our body. I have shown in Shamanism: A Biopsychosocial Paradigm of Consciousness and Healing that ritual has deep evolutionary roots as a community bonding and social healing resource. Some of the unexplored aspects of shamanic healing include the power of ritual to elicit a variety of physiological responses, as in the case of community bonding eliciting endogenous opioid responses. I would argue that we evolved through spirituality and the capacity for altruistic actions to elicit healing responses, and that these practices are still an intrinsic part of human nature that have many applications in the modern world. We ignore them at our peril.

issue 6 Visions

medicine?

Is eliciting these healing responses one of the goals in controlling the direction of a soul flight or out-of-body experience? The control of the soul flight has many objectives; I would view them primarily in terms of accessing information. Our brain is a complex information processing system that largely excludes most information from consciousness. You’ve heard that we only use 5% or 10% of our brain; the information in the rest of the brain is generally screened out. Altered states of consciousness enhance access to this information stream, hence the ability of soul flight to bring information into the complex dream-like visual construction of reality. In shamanic healing this information may be about the patient, and used to construct a diagnosis about the psychosocial dynamics underlying the affliction. How are shamanic visions communicated among people? Are they recorded? Are they passed

Shamanic visions may remain private personal experiences, shared with close groups, and may

enter into the group’s mythology. Perhaps the most interesting is the direct interpersonal sharing of shamanic visions through co-journeying or clairvoyance. Time and time again, novices have begun to recount their incredible journeys to elders, who respond knowingly with comments like

“Yes, we went there, too,” or indications that they too experienced the journey of the novice. This suggests that for some, the soul journey is not some exclusively personal experience, but rather

GLIMPSE www.glimpsejournal.com

an entry into a non-ordinary reality that nonetheless has objective features subject to consensual validation.

Can you describe, either generally or taking a particular case into account, what one “sees” during soul flight?

Perhaps the most classic aspect of the soul flight experience is something akin to what it must be like to fly with your body, but not the physical body, rather a disembodied ephemeral aspect

htt

of the self. The soul flight experiences recounted to me often involve seeing incredible beings, immense cities of unknown architecture, and intricate patterns of flowing colors, sounds and feelings. There probably is no end to the variation in soul flight experiences, from something that appears no different from ordinary reality, to dream-like symbolic manifestations, to classic mythological worlds, to incredible unearthly scenes that defy the wildest imagination. I think that the variations might be partially understood in terms of the different aspects of the worlds shamans seek to know. In shamanic cosmologies there are a number of levels to the universe. Contemporary shamanistic practices emphasize three principal aspects, the lower, middle and upper worlds. While any of these may be experienced in terms of something ordinary, I think that the middle world, thought to correspond to the human plane, is most likely to be experienced as something like ordinary reality. But even

m .ht

NT e E T rib N O bsc C Y /su L ON l.com N na O I r T u P I jo e R s SC imp B SU w.gl w w / p:/

on through oral tradition?

(Right) Pictographs from the Horsethief Canyon site, Utah. These paintings, in the Barrier Canyon style, are Archaic in age, dating from about 5000–3000 ybp. Note the conflation of human, bird, bighorn and, possibly snake. Image courtesy of David S. Whitley.

“ordinary reality” and the middle world may be “seen” in its spiritual essence, luminescent, with unusual colors, features, and entities. Lower world experiences are often recounted in terms of encounters with animals and nature, while upper world experiences are frequently characterized in terms of higher spiritual beings and powers. But these stereotypical aspects are but a glimpse of the possible experiences of soul flight—I would say that they could be of anything, including worlds beyond our imaginations. w Visit

http://www.glimpsejournal.com

for

the

extended

interview

with

Dr.

Winkelman.

His forthcoming book, Shamanism: A Biopsychosocial Paradigm of Consciousness and Healing, published by ABC-CLIO, LLC, will be available August 2010.

T . N E ibe T N scr O C ub Y s / L ON l.com N na O I T jour P I R pse C S im B SU w.gl w w ://

p t t h

upper worlds middle and Contemporary shamanistic practices emphasize . .the lower,

issue 6 Visions

l m ht

Neu t r a l T e r r i t o r i es The High Sier r a t r a v e l i n g inwa s Bergman

by Peter Mile

3 7 Dylan and I live in the woods. We went into a town, sat around, and watched television over the Memorial Day weekend. I don’t know for certain if we’ve been walking for 37 days. It is only for posterity that I keep track. Rather than having to recall the date or day of the week, I count. The camera’s digital date display was turned off for good a few days ago. It never seemed to know the date either. Whenever numbers could be confirmed through laborious recollecting, the camera would be wrong. Initially I liked the date feature as it imbued my snapshots with the cold impression of evidence. Though an appealing aesthetic, the date stamp didn’t keep geologic time. Relative to ourselves, the land we walk through is timeless. It has preceded and will follow us for millions of years. Passing through this space is not necessary for it to be valid. Commemorating the fine views is certainly worthwhile. Photos will provide me relics of experience. All images, however, have the potential to take on a life independent of the place, time, and photographer who spawned them. Creating a dated image is a megalomaniacal attempt to confine the gaze presented to the time I was present–and to trap the land into the narrow confines of my experience.

dylan kuhn

_ _ _ _ _

> _ _ _ _ _ mt. san jacinto

“we were here”

Example A: Extrapolation of the camera date feature. >

Late this afternoon, we mounted a knoll jutting off a westward saddle of Olancha Peak. Ominous snow-crowned peaks of the high Sierra rose out of the forested valley below. The viewfinder of my point-and-shoot scanned across the awe-inspiring panorama. I laughed to myself and put the camera back in the pack. There’s just no way.

-------Original Message------From: cyberhobo <cyberhobo@cyberhobo.net> Subject: Re: re-use a photo on your site? Sent: 15 Feb ‘06 16:31 On 2/15/06, erinpage wrote: Hi there—

issue 6 Visions

Example B: _ >

> > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > >

I googled for “Mexican border” images and a photo on your site came up. For a short course offered by my church on immigration, I'm hoping to come up with an evocative photo of the border, and I think yours fits the bill. Would you mind if I used it in a print brochure? I'm happy to provide attribution, of course. The picture I like is [LINK: http://www.cyberhobo.net/PCT/pct02.jpg ] For context, my church, Plymouth Congregational in Seattle, is a mainline socially liberal church. The course, "Building Bridges, Not Walls," is meant to give its participants a better understanding of the complexities around the causes of migration and ways that a faith community can respond with care and empathy. Please let me know! Thanks very much. Erin Page

I received the above forward from Dylan on the first day of this project, while laying out the adjacent page. It pertains to a photo I took of the Mexican border on 04.15.96–day 01 of our 82-day walk. I started working on this text from day 37 in an attempt to highlight the familial relationships one leaves behind when embarking on a Territorial Passage. We were leaving my mom’s house heading into the high country. Receiving the link to my own picture from day 01 affirmed that I was beginning this journey again. Its appearance in my inbox also told me that I should really go back and start at the beginning. Despite our detour to mom’s, by day 37 we were

4 0

GLIMPSE www.glimpsejournal.com

Looking forward to the luxury of a day hike, we stowed our gear—with the exception of lunch, cameras, ice axes, and all our cold weather clothes—in the bear box and headed up the 8.7 mile, 4,150 foot altitude gain. Our packs looked deflated. Snow completely obstructed the trail after a couple miles. Reflected sun intensified the blanket of white. A set of switchbacks rose in the distance up an immense snow-laden slope. The morning snow was stiff and we practiced chiseling foot holds out of it with our ice axes. Elevation made me lethargic. Topping out on the slope, we met a trail coming up from the eastern slope and turned south toward the summit. Fifteen to twenty feet of rock rose to our right, marking the top of the ridge. An occasional break in the ridge exposed a stupefying glimpse of Owens Valley, almost 10,000 feet straight down. Four people and a dog, all from Los Angeles, were sitting on the peak. We swapped cameras and took group pictures backgrounded by panoramic vistas. I took a photo of the view from the highest outhouse in the United States at 14,460 feet. So many people hike to the summit during the summer that the Forest Service had to build an outhouse. The “honey pot” has to be airlifted out by helicopter. Because the helicopter can’t land on the uneven slope, a ranger has to hike to the summit in order to clip the cable to the payload—our tax dollars at work.

well into the neutral zone and wide open to the meaningfull coincidences of synchronicity. While attempting to illustrate, “All images have the potential to take on a life independent of the place, time, and the photographer who spawned them,” I received Erin’s email – a more profound demonstration of the point. According to psychologist Carl Jung, such meaningful coincidences build a bridge between the conscious and unconscious. Jung explains synchronicity as the manifestation in the consciousness of archetypes: “mental forms whose presence cannot be explained by anything in the individual’s own

Looking from whence we came then toward our destination was humbling. To the south were green meadows surrounded by a couple of snow-capped mountains. To the north, our destination, snowy plateaus and hulking granite peaks stretched as far as the eye could see. There will be several tough creek fords tomorrow. At 13,195 feet, Forester Pass will be our main obstacle. It is the highest point on the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT). My Uncle Keith described the pass to me as “switchbacks chiseled out of granite cliffs.” It is described in the book as “dangerous when covered with snow.”

Though Whitney Creek was only knee-deep, the prospect of wading through 15 feet of icy snow runoff to the frost-caked far bank in the pre-dawn light was keeping me cocooned from the outside world at the bottom of my sleeping bag. Dyl found a place to try rock-hopping the creek. A couple rocks peeked out of the water setting up a big step to a partially submerged tree trunk. I absentmindedly waited my turn. He gingerly stepped out to the second smaller rock, squatted slowly and, much to my dismay, stretched way out to hack ice off the tree trunk with his axe. I wandered downstream to look for a better crossing spot. The banks closed into six-foot high granite walls about 15 feet above a waterfall. By following a ledge out a few feet, I could make a large step to the pointy nub of an almost submerged rock. It was too far to shift my center of balance onto the perch. I could wobble for a couple of seconds on one foot before having to step back to the ledge. Gathering nerve, I placed my first foot, stepped out with my second, wobbled with both feet for a second, jumped three feet to a flat rock and then to the bank. It was difficult and potentially dangerous, with the falls downstream, but seemed preferable to getting my feet wet. On the next creek crossing, with my confidence up, I unwittingly hopped onto an ice-glazed rock. My torso went backward and my legs forward. I landed in fetal position on the rock with my left arm stuck up to the shoulder in freezing water.

life and which seem to be aboriginal, innate, and inherited shapes of the human mind.” Symbolic motifs common to all humans and drawn like clear water from a dark well. To those of us vainly sifting expired dreams through a kaleidoscope of collapsing subjective relativism, archetypes function as way markers left for us by the ancestors who cut this path. I’m positive that someone has deconstructed Jung’s claim that we can all access a common consciousness. Jung, however, anticipates all criticism by cheekily stating that his detractors do not know as much about the unconscious as he.

issue 6 Visions

4 1

I’m index-aided quote-pulling from a copy of Jung’s Man and His Symbols. This particular book was a gift from Captain Bill—a wizened hippie whose couch Dylan had made his home. Dylan and I had been acquaintances for several years but did not know each other well. I was drawn into his and Bill’s circle by a whirl of home cooking and tall tales. One evening, in the summer of 1991, we sat doodling at Bill’s kitchen table with his two little kids. I drew six naked bodies sitting cross-legged around a sun. Their heads and upward reaching arms became rays of flame. Captain Bill was maniacally excited about the drawing. He insisted that I take his hardbound Man and His Symbols inscribed with “Chaos Manor” and his address. Within a year, their tattooed ranks had reduced to four on my outer arm. The upward reaching rays of flame reformed into a symmetrical cross of hands enveloping the earth on my inner bicep.

GLIMPSE www.glimpsejournal.com

Our summer hanging out at Chaos Manor was a pivot into young adulthood. Both of us still lived with our parents, in the kind of tenuous way that eighteen-year-olds do. Dylan crashed at Chaos Manor most of the time. I was (in my mind) “visiting” my Dad. He had a pullout couch. Dylan and I became forever friends the afternoon he asked a receptionist at Sun Tan USA if he could tan a whirling formaldehyde jar of suckerfish. The fish were liberated, with my dad as an accomplice, from the University of Wyoming’s Biology storeroom. They came to a final rest as a centerpiece for the dining room table at Chaos Manor. Sometime after I moved to California for college I heard that the jar broke—an inevitable outcome. After a full nine months of autonomy from parenting in the freshman dorms, I moved back to Wyoming. School bills were coming up in fall and I needed a job—my first. Dylan and his Great Dane mutt, Dinger, had been sleeping in a silver-grey Dodge van. The second D was missing on the grill making it a DO GE. We referred to it as “The Doge” in honor of the Dukes that ruled classical Venice. Dad had upgraded the pullout couch to a guest bedroom with a queen-size bed; but I opted to move into The Doge with Dylan and Dinger. We expanded our habitat by setting up camp in the opposite corner of the state from Chaos Manor. We took migrant labor jobs cleaning condominiums in Jackson, Wyoming. The Doge was perfectly suited to carrying wads of sheets and towels. The condo cleaning company let us keep all the food we found.

issue 6 Visions

Since The Doge had no refrigeration unit, we had to consume perishables, sometimes gallons of ice cream, on the spot. We were sleeping in tents up Cache Creek Canyon southeast of town. To get to camp weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d park The Doge at the Gros Ventre trailhead and walk a couple miles up the trail to a large encampment of hard-case drunks. Our self-appointed guardians would cheerily invite us over for Mad Dog 20-20 when we crossed Cache Creek on a log adjacent to their hovel.

GLIMPSE www.glimpsejournal.com

Our time together drew to a close after a hallucinatory late summer night. We clawed our way to the top of Gros Ventre Butte to watch the sunset. Dylan kept hiking back into the pine forests. I walked to the rocky end of the butte, perhaps the most pictur-esque place on earth. The Grand Tetons, mountains so iconic that everyone has a mental image of them pre-loaded by television and advertising, dominated the vista. To the north, thousands of elk had come down from the mountains to graze in the wide valley of The Teton Elk Refuge. I laid down and watched a thunder storm build from the southwest, near the Snake River, roll up the valley, rain on me, move north, and dissipate onto the high plain just south of Yellowstone. During the heavy hour-long storm, I nestled into the dirt in an effort to hide from bursts of lightning which periodically lashed the butte. The more it rained, the more I was able to wallow myself into the earth. After sunset, covered in mud, I scrambled down the face of the butte. At a county road, I crossed a barbed-wire fence into a manicured pasture. In the middle of the field, a pale horse snorted and twitched. Clouds still broiling in my mind went the way of their thunder-bearing brethren into the sky. A pantswetting calm wiped across me. On the way back to camp, Dylan came skipping out of the trees at the edge of the road. He had spent the night running with coyotes back into the mountains, yelping whenever his turn came. A week later, Dylan decided his days as a condo cleaner were over. His dad had just walked into the Wind River Mountains, a couple hundred miles to the southeast, to climb Gannett Peak. Dylan knew what day his dad was hiking in, not where he would be camping or at what pace heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d be walking. Fresh off his navigation lessons from the coyotes, he left confident that he would have no problem catching up. Without the safe harbor of The Doge, I was cast adrift for another month of toilet bowl scrubbing and head sorting.

issue 6 Visions

+ +

++ + ++ + +

GLIMPSE www.glimpsejournal.com

There are no plans to circle the earth, unless they involve flying, and perhaps a cruise in there somewhere. I used to call the detritus of my undertakings “the artificial by-products of insanity.” As I get more enmeshed in the rhythm of marriage, property, and career, I’m just not finding the time it takes to produce projects that look like they were executed by someone with a serious problem. The numberless Bible remains halfway finished— somewhere around page 600. Though a tinge of obsessive behavior still haunts the corners, I don’t think my activities were, or are, a product of poor mental health. I think they are a product of ambition. Yet, why was my ambition so far afield? Does approaching life in such a highly constructed yet backwards manner add value? To me? To our culture?

issue 6 Visions

The fire ignited in me by that 1992 lightning storm on Gros Ventre Butte was stoked to an inferno after the walk. I began to weave a behavioral hair-shirt. Distracted by the numbers on my first attempt to read the Bible, I began a daily ritual of cutting them all out—verse, chapter and page— with an X-ACTO blade. I quit breaking contact with the earth. I’m not afraid of flying. I’m a conscientious objector. Within the frame of my artificial phobia, jetlag is the time it takes an earthbound soul to catch up with its body. Recently I began constructing an artificial phobia of having my picture taken. So far, I’ve avoided full investment in the “primitive” notion that a camera steals your soul. If I lost my license, I couldn’t have my photograph taken for a new one. When I lost my passport, I’d be left with my illegible college I.D. (my high school I.D. had been traded to Dylan for the dreadlock on the crown of his head). Inevitably, I would lose my last piece of identification. As persona non grata, citizen of the planet, I would feel a profound pull to composite my eccentricities into a comprehensive quest: circle the surface of the earth with no identification–carrying a multi-language translation of the following passage from Numbers in my numberless Bible: “Let me pass through thy land: we will not turn into the fields, or into the vineyards; we will not drink of the waters of well: but we will go along by the king’s highway, until we pass by thy borders.” I planned to fly after eleven years – traveling by land from Chicago to jump out of the plane with Dylan over Oregon’s mountains on 11/11/06. Thunder storms grounded our flight. I flirted with not having my picture taken for the next eleven years – timed to resume the documentation of this story in 2018 when we walk the remaining 900 miles of the PCT (twice as old for the second half). It would lend phobic symmetry to eleven years without flight. I was tired of exploring self-identity as art, of waving my hands and yelling, “Everybody look at ME!” In the present I don’t like, but don’t avoid, having my picture taken. I didn’t point the camera at myself during last July’s 555 mile walk across Wyoming. We flew home the day after crossing the Montana border.

4 6 A stone shack with glass windows sat atop Muir Pass. We went inside and signed the trail register. Psycho Ken and LETITBE had notations. I added a quote from Uncle Dewey’s travel quote book that has stuck in my head. “All journeys begin and end the same way. All travel is a form of gradual self-extinction.” - Shiva, Destroyer of Worlds I was feeling better yet fatigue still grasped at me. I began to lag behind in an effort to gain some mental space. Occasional trees broke up the terrain. Near one such outcropping, I came upon a complete backbone. I picked up the interlocking vertebrae and held them at eye level. The spine fell apart and the vertabrae scattered on the ground. I stood for a moment stunned at my effect on the remains. With a vertebrae remaining in my hand, I chased off after Dylan to prevent him from disappearing into the distance.

GLIMPSE www.glimpsejournal.com

I had a dream last night. No, it was a premonition. Rather, the dream felt like a premonition. It has remained with me vividly all day. Dyl and I were inside the main hall of a great cathedral. Stained glass and carved wood banisters filled walls that stretched up endlessly to a high ceiling. Thousands of people filled the immense space. A Popish figure stood at the pulpit giving Mass. All very Catholic, this scene appeared, very Old-World European. Dylan sat out in the sea of anonymous bodies. I sat near the entryway on the type of simple table one usually finds cluttering the wings of such grandiose buildings. With me was a bright yellow inflated rubber ducky. It had some sort of bright red shirt or costume emblazoned with a gold lightning bolt. Ducky was me. I still sat there next to it, but it was me. Like a voodoo doll or talisman, Ducky and I were interchangeable. A charity box was being passed around with odds and ends, mostly clothes. In it were two immaculately shiny inflatable black boots, Ducky’s size. Each had wings off either side like the sandals of that Greek messenger. I think Hermes is his name. A gold bolt which matched the shirt graced each boot. The boots radiated power. They were, for Ducky, like the super hero Green Lantern’s ring. Without it, Green Lantern was just a guy in a funny costume. With it, he had super powers. I put the boots on Ducky and began to pump him with my hand. He squeaked with each squeeze. The squeaks overpowered all sound in the space; yet, everyone ignored it, instead focusing on the sermon. Dyl’s ears too were pricked by the squeaks. He bolted from his chair gesticulating maniacally and screaming, “The Ducky’s got the boots! The Ducky’s got the boots!” It was an indescribably profound and empowering moment. Everyone stopped, including the Pope guy, looked at Dylan, and listened to the squeaks. No one seemed to understand. They were only intrigued by the interruption. The moment passed. Dyl looked around silently and sat back down. Mass continued.

Territorial Passages are liminal rites that form the transformative core of comingof-age rituals. It is the phase in which the participant is between what they have been and what they will become. The ritual participant is in a wholly sacred realm, open to the imprinting of mystical symbols in the form of dreams, visions, or meaningful coincidence. In aboriginal societies, visions and dreams are interpreted in accordance with strictly prescribed cultural codes. Anthropologist Victor Turner describes vision quests among Native American boys as, “a type of situation in which there is no room for secular compromise, evasion, manipulation, casuistry and maneuver in the field of custom, rule and norm.” Fire Lame Deer, a Lakota Sioux from the Black Hills, provides an example in the description of his coming-of-age Rite of Passage. He prayed that Wakan Tanka, The Great Spirit, would bestow upon him a healer’s vision so he could become a Medicine Man—a prestigious occupation in any culture. issue 6 Visions

Left alone, in a dirt pit at the top of a hill, Lame Deer worried that he would dream of the Wakinyan, Thunder Birds, or that a thunder storm would roll in. Such an event would determine that his latent mischievousness was of more importance to the tribes’ greater good than his skills at healing. When boys are visited by Thunder Birds on their vision quests, or lightning strikes their hill, they immediately become the Heyoka, or backwards man. Heyokas ride their horses backward into battle and face the entrance to their sweat lodges in the wrong direction. They are sacred clowns that live their life as an example of what not to do. In keeping with Turner’s observation, Lame Deer never mentions or even insinuates that if the hill were to be struck by lightning that he would tell the elders otherwise upon his return. Turner’s summation describes Lame Deer’s potential dilemma, “A normal man acts abnormally because he is obedient to tribal tradition, not out of disobe-

dience to it. He does not evade but fulfills his duties as a citizen.” w To see a photo animation of the author’s 1700 mi. walk across California on the PCT go to http://www.sociometry.com/PaCT.html

Black Elk (1863-1950), a prominent Lakota Sioux holy man and Heyoka, believed that laughter and suffering, though polar opposite emotional responses, served as the two faces of truth. – R. Sapin

HEYOKA

ooted in Lakota Sioux culture, the Heyoka takes on not only the role of the sacred clown but also that of healer. In the Lakota tradition, becoming a holy man or becoming a Heyoka both depend on the individual’s dream vision: the medicine man dreams of birds while the Heyoka dreams of the Thunderbird. The Thunderbird is a dual-natured spirit-animal that generates powerful storms through the beating of its wings, providing the land with life-sustaining moisture, but also causing damage with hail, flooding, and fire from lightning. Like the dual-natured Thunderbird, the Heyoka are tasked with revealing truth to the community through absurd, often literally backwards acts (such wandering around naked and complaining of the heat on a below-zero day).

RetroSpect: ca. 1870 The temperance campaign against things that go bump in the night

by Lauren B. Hewes, American Antiquarian Society

avid Claypoole Johnston (1799-1865)

sneaking cordials during social outings. The series

was a noted American artist who

also includes a remarkable drawing entitled,

worked as a painter, book illustrator,

“Attack of delirium tremens or horrors,” which is

art instructor, and printmaker around

illustrated here. Three figures struggle in a room,

Boston, Massachusetts. Best known

the central man experiencing a difficult round of

today for his scathing social satires, Johnston

the DTs. A woman and another man attempt to

spent decades skewering his neighbors,

restrain him, and a chair has been knocked over.

modes of fashion, and New

GLIMPSE www.glimpsejournal.com

England

practices.

One

political of

his

publications was a semiannual periodical entitled

a swarm of demon-like creatures emerges from a wall

Scraps in which he used multiple images,

These events are all well and good and happening

comic-book style, to blast everything from

in the real world. However, at the left of the page,

current medical practices to the trials of

a swarm of demon-like creatures emerges from a

domestic life.

wall. They torment the central man, blowing their breath on him, ogling him with out-sized eyes,

Toward the end of his life, Johnston created

and opening their jaws as if to bite. They are a

a set of fifteen small graphite and wash

vision in the worst possible sense, terrifying and

drawings, one to a page, exploring the subject

dangerous.

of alcohol abuse. He framed the series in the tone of an anti-slavery pamphlet and entitled

D.C. Johnston often explored temperance themes

it Slavery (Voluntary) as it Exists North, South,

in his paintings and prints, many dating from before

East and West. The fifteen images contained

his work on this one. Significantly, at the time that

within this series include scenes of figures

Johnston was working on the series, the famous

bowing down before kegs of alcohol, men

orator John B. Gough (1817-1886) was speaking

struggling with drunkenness, and women

widely about the evils of drinking. Gough was an

(Right) Drawing, “Attack of the delirium tremens or horrors,” from Slavery (Voluntary) as it Exists North, South, East and West, by David Claypoole Johnston, published 1871. Graphite and ink wash on paper. Courtesy of the American Antiquarian Society.

issue 6 Visions

acknowledged alcoholic, although at the

walls.” In his drawing, he skillfully captures the

time the illness was not yet recognized as

isolation of the main figure, his terror, and his

anything more than a weakness for drink. He

physical posturing, striking out at something that is not really there. While the

the viewer can completely man’s fear may seem irrational to those in the room, we as the understand his terror, because... viewer can completely understand his terror, because—and here is the we can see them, too key—we can see them, too. Visual renderings of visions or dreams make began speaking in the 1840s and preached

them, in a sense, real. 19th-century artists and

a total abstinence policy—recognizing that

their predecessors painted biblical raptures,

falling off the wagon was easy if social

apocalyptic visions, and dreams in an

drinking was permitted. Gough spoke widely

attempt to make them real for their viewers.

on temperance themes, and gave over nine-

Johnston’s depiction of the DTs was part of

thousand lectures in his forty-year career.

this art tradition.

NT e E T rib N O bsc C Y /su L ON l.com N na O I r T u P I jo e R s SC imp B SU w.gl w w / p:/

The high point of most of these lectures

GLIMPSE www.glimpsejournal.com

was Gough’s detailed descriptions of the

D.C. Johnston never published the fifteen

delirium tremens. In his autobiography he

sketches from Slavery (Voluntary) as it Exists

describes them in several paragraphs,

North, South, East and West. Several years

noting at one point that, “Hideous faces

after his death, in 1871, Johnston’s son

appeared on the walls, and on the ceilings,

issued the set in a portfolio format using

and on the floors; foul things crept along

photographic reproductions of the drawings

the bed–clothes, and glaring eyes peered

with letterpress titles. The publication was not

into mine.” (An Autobiography by John B.

successful and is known today only in a handful

Gough, 1853 edition, p. 46). Gough was

of copies. The original drawings and a set of

even called “the poet of the DTs” by his

the photographic reproductions are part of

contemporaries because of his ability to

the collection of the American Antiquarian

describe his hallucinations so clearly and

Society, in Worcester, Massachusetts – the

compellingly to his audiences.

town, by the way, in which John B. Gough

htt

first signed a temperance pledge and began It is certainly possible that D.C. Johnston

his career as an orator against alcohol. w

may have heard Gough lecture, or read his of his programs which appeared in Boston

For more information on Johnston and his work, visit the American Antiquarian Society’s Johnston Family Collection page at www.americanantiquarian.org/

newspapers. It seems likely that Johnston

johnston.htm

autobiography, or one of the many reviews

derived his rendering of the delirium tremens from a textual source, embellishing perhaps on Gough’s “hideous faces appearing on the

m .ht

Our Inscapes Projected Outward: Charles Bonnet Syndrome by Rachel Sapin The idea of blindness enhancing our visual perspective harkens back in Western literature to Greek mythology and characters such as Tiresias of Thebes, who, after being blinded by seeing the naked Athena bathing, was given the gift and curse of being able to prophesy the future.

Easily dismissed as senility or dementia, what in fact was causing Bonnet’s grandfather to “see things” was a decline in vision resulting from cataracts. CBS occurs largely in individuals with visual impairments, and is most common in those suffering from age-related macular degeneration. In fact, what makes this visual condition so unusual is that the affected individual is conscious of the unreality of the image he or she is seeing. Scientists believe an individual’s loss of normal perception causes the brain to compensate by revving up the part of its visual sensory cortex where thousands, even millions of figments and fragments of images are stored. The result:

Unlike visionary experiences or psychotic hallucinations, people experiencing CBS cannot engage with the people and things they are seeing—it is as if silent movies were being projected for a viewer to watch, but not interact with. This is in part due to the hallucinations coming from an area of the brain where images are not yet connected with sensory information such as sound, smell, taste, or even with fully-developed memories or emotions. Similar hallucinations have been documented in those who have taken part in extreme sensory-deprivation experiments. The hallucinations are often short-term and tend to disappear almost as spontaneously as they occur. “We see with our eyes, but we also see with our brain,” explains renowned neuroscientist Oliver Sacks. Charles Bonnet Syndrome, though slowly being brought to light, is still quite inscrutable. We are left to wonder: Is the brain so adapted to a constant stream of external visual stimulation, that in response to a lack of it, it will project even our most basic inscapes outward? w (Left) Image of woman, courtesy of Flickr member, Megyarsh. Image of beetle, courtesy of Flickr member, Zanastardust.

issue 6 Visions

Science also links blindness and and the phenomena of being able to see things beyond our normal capacities. Charles Bonnet Syndrome (CBS) is named after the 18th-century Swiss biologist and philosopher who detailed the complex hallucinations experienced by his 89-year-old grandfather, which included everything from seeing imaginary buildings and birds to men and women, the hallucinations often varying in shape and size.

a stream of complex hallucinations before your very eyes that can last for minutes, sometimes hours. These are images that we normally process on a subconscious basis, that can range from simple geometric patterns to people in brightly-colored garments.

GLIMPSE www.glimpsejournal.com

Performing Imaginary Pilgrimages Re/enacting the cloistered meta-voyages of the 15th-century Sisters of the Dominican Observance by Carolyn Arcabascio

Jerusalem himself, wrote the Sionpilger,

the Sisters of the Dominican

a spiritual travel guide for the virtual

Observance

pilgrims. Though the writing of pilgrimage

Medingen and Medlingen,

accounts was common at the time, and

like so many devotees before and after them,

such works constituted a literary genre

convents

embarked on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Their

in their own right, the Sionpilger was

trek was arduous, like those of the many faithful who

different. More than just a page-turner,

had traversed roiling oceans and leagues of changing

the travelogue’s purpose was to offer daily

landscapes to finally, gloriously, set foot in the city of Jerusalem. And like countless other journeys, theirs was motivated by a longing to be better, to touch greater truths, to move ever closer to God. Despite common

issue 6 Visions

late 15th-century Germany,

they completed their journey, 75 to the Holy Land and back, without ever leaving home

goals, shared fortitude and grit, the nuns differed from their fellow pilgrims in one

descriptions of the challenges the traveler

extraordinary way: they completed their journey, to

would face along her imaginary journey,

the Holy Land and back, without ever leaving home.

as well exercises to flex her spirituality along the way. On a difficult day, crossing

“Home” happened to be forever inside the walls of

dangerous terrain, she would pray for

a convent. At the request of the cloistered sisters,

strength. To celebrate her triumphs, she

Dominican preacher Felix Fabri, two-time pilgrim to

would sing the Ave Maria. To prepare for the next day’s imagined events, she’d flip

(Left) Dr. Kathryne Beebe and Consort Iridiana performs Imaginary Pilgrimage at New College, University of Oxford, image courtesy of Tom Weller; Map overlay from The Book of the Wanderings of Felix Fabri (circa 1480-1483 A.D.) , published in London, 1896. Courtesy of Wikimedia Foundation and Beatrice Spade, Colorado State University, Pueblo.

ahead. It’s clear to Dr. Kathryne Beebe that the Sionpilger offers the modern scholar much more than a glimpse of the sights and sounds of the medieval pilgrimage.

It’s more than an historian’s resource from which to

between Fabri and the sisters, and would

pluck selected facts like “how much passage to the

have fallen flat had the nuns, as readers,

Holy Land might have cost,” says the University of

not been so acutely attuned to its intent.

Oxford medievalist. Instead, “it’s a workbook for the

So while the voice of Fabri, the shepherd

soul.”

of souls, is so clearly preserved in the Sionpilger, Beebe suggests that, listening

The exterior world for a cloistered woman, unlike

closely, we can also hear the voices of the

her interior world, offered precious few thrills. A

salvation-seekers, figuratively speaking.

nun who went on this imaginary journey would have

otherwise had, as Beebe explains, “a lot of sameness

However,

in her life. She had her cell, she had choir. These

collaboration with a colleague at St Hilda’s

were women who were confined to one particular

College, choral conductor Dr. Jonathan

building for years and years, but were not by any

Williams, this is quite literally true, too.

means limited intellectually.”

Perhaps it was this

Fabri’s audience, as it would turn out, is

sameness, this lack of distraction that rendered their

perhaps much broader than the preacher

spiritual experiences—singing, reading, imagining—

ever anticipated. Spanning geography and

so powerful, and made the nuns such remarkable

about half a millennium, Fabri’s audience

“spiritual athletes,” as Beebe describes them. And

now sings, listens and meditates in the

in the Sionpilger, we have a firsthand account of

candlelit New College Chapel in Oxford,

Fabri’s strategy as their coach.

where—through Beebe’s and Williams’s

thanks

Beebe’s

own

selection and presentation of medieval “Fabri’s aim,” says Beebe, “was to stimulate a sense

images, passages of Fabri’s text and the

of devotion. His job was to save souls.” But this

music he mentions—centuries-old visions

work was born out of a collaborative spirit shared

have become modern-day performance.

(Background image) Consort Iridiana choir performance of Imaginary Pilgrimage at New College, University of Oxford, image courtesy of Tom Weller. (Above, right) Beschreibung der Reise von Konstanz nach Jerusalem, by Konrad von Gr端nenberg, Image courtesy of Badische Landesbibliothek, Cod. St. Peter pap. 32., fol. 5v and 6r.

Despite its deeply religious origins and

The venue’s audience listens to passages of the

the interchange of spoken word and

Sionpilger, and to the soaring voices of the 21st-

choir music, the performance “is not

century choir whenever Fabri prompts his 15th-century

like a church service,” says Williams, the

flock to sing, as he does many times, including when

Director of Music at St. Hilda’s College:

the virtual pilgrims reach the Holy Land. For the sake

“It’s more like opera” in its integration

of Beebe’s and Williams’s 50-minute performance, the arrival in Jerusalem and the vigil

Spanning geography and about half a millennium, Fabri’s audience now sings, listens and meditates

of St. Katherine, spent at the top of Mount Sinai, is about where the curtain closes, since Williams justifiably felt the return trip would result in a bit of an “anticlimax.” For the sake of performance, Beebe and

Williams

selected

only

key

of image, speech and music. The chapel,

along the journey about which to sing. Specifically,

erected just one century before the nuns

the performance of the nuns’ journey progresses via

of Ulm embarked on their imagined

eight main imagined events:

GLIMPSE www.glimpsejournal.com

passages to read, and only milestones

pilgrimage, houses a large screen onto which images are projected and in front

• Leaving Ulm

of which stands an all-female choir called

• Arriving in Venice

Consort Iridiana, whose voices echo

• Leaving Venice in their ship

those of their musical predecessors.

• Singing to celebrate their departure

Although Williams has no way of knowing

• The first sight of the Holy Land

for certain the actual arrangements sung

• Arriving in Jerusalem

by the Dominican sisters (Fabri frequently

• Arriving in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre

mentions titles or first lines of lyrics, but

• Going further to Mount Sinai to the Monastery

he makes no mention of composers in the

of St. Katherine

Sionpilger), Williams “scouted through the repertoire for the most varied and

New College Chapel’s audience listens to plainsong

attractive music” that was written around

and to works by Josquin, Binchois, and Gombert,

the same time, and that the sisters very

taken along on the ethereal voyage, and focuses

well might have sung.

on the larger-than-life images behind the choir that

(Facing page, clockwise from below). Consort Iridiana choir performance of Imaginary Pilgrimage at New College, University of Oxford, image courtesy of Tom Weller; Lily image, courtesy of Andrew Kraker. Saint Catherine of Alexandria, altarpiece panel, by Michael Pacher, 1465-1470.Tiroler Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum, Innsbruck, Austria.

complement the content of the music and passages. By weaving these auditory and visual elements together, Beebe and Williams hoped to engage the audience from all angles, to provoke all senses.

issue 6 Visions

Mirroring the varying drama of the ever-changing

meditation.” Meanwhile, Williams conducted musical

heavy wood, and yet she’s holding it with just her thumb and forefinger— like I’ve seen other images of the Virgin Mary hold the stem of a lily. And so for her, this really heavy wheel of torture is as light as a flower. I’ve never seen that detail until I had the time, with my mind tuned in, with all these associations between the text

selections to enhance the mood, such as plainsong

and the image and the music.

contemplative,

rousing—and

even

humorous—

moments of the journey, Beebe selected appropriate images and Williams, music, to reflect the different feelings required. Beebe describes the images presented in these moments as open—images to “sink your mind into, and that allow some space for

for more meditative moments, pieces that were “haunting and beautiful and pure and simple—one

It’s of course these three elements—text,

note at a time.” Wherever the journey quickened,

image, music—that carried the sisters

the imagery would become more complex, the

across such vast, imagined spaces, and

music more complicated (with some pieces in eight

that place us now into their (well-worn)

parts, which Williams describes as “cutting-edge”

figurative shoes.

in Fabri’s time). The result of this more intense

GLIMPSE www.glimpsejournal.com

stimulation, Beebe observes, is yet another form of

Our own era is one of instantaneity;

collective meditation on the audience’s part, but this

it’s one of speed. Our world is one

time involving “a different kind of brain activity.”

where travel to distant places, sacred or otherwise, is convenient for many

These diverse modes of attention and imagination

and possible for most. And while time

may resemble, if not mimic, the kinds of intellectual

has inevitably carved a deep cultural

and spiritual acrobatics achieved by the nuns. The

and

abstract notion of their journey, in turn, becomes

ourselves and the cloistered sisters of

more tangible. And needless to say, when one

southern Germany, today, like then, the

reaches the point where 500-year-old visions

imagination builds bridges. Beebe’s and

become visceral, become alive, there’s no telling

Williams’s performance reveals long-past

what else the mind may have opened to. For Beebe,

visions to be decidedly relevant and

as the nuns reached St. Katherine’s grave in the final

rejuvenating today. And giving life, here

stretches of their pilgrimage, she was inspired to see

in the present, to the voices of Fabri and

a projected image of the “plump” saint as depicted

the sisters may very well be, says Beebe,

by Michael Pacher (ca. 1465-1470), an image which

“the closest we’ll ever get to time travel.”

she had herself selected, in an entirely new way:

She’s holding in her hands the wheel that she was tortured upon and that she broke. I had the time to look at the image [while hearing] the words, Holy virgin Katherine/Daughter, joy of scholars/Daughter, lily of modesty. I noticed, when the choir was singing the part about the lily of modesty, how Katherine was holding this wheel. It’s a giant wheel with big spikes made of

technological

divide

between

Visit www.glimpsejournal.com to view additional images and to hear segments of the music described in this article.

(RE)VIEWS Requiem, Where the Wild Things Are and Harvey by Ivy Moylan

Asking questions is one of the most important responsibilities of art. The films mentioned here are examples of how visions can be depicted cinematically, and the ways in which questions as to what is real or imagined can be raised. There are many other movies that deal with the subject of visions and the marriage of the “real” and the “unreal,” including standouts such as Donnie Darko, Labyrinth, Jacob’s Ladder, and Pan’s Labyrinth. For this discussion, I specifically selected the films below because, rather than beg the question as to where visions come from, they instead address the tension that we all experience between daily life and our inner worlds of the fantastic, visionary or imaginary.

Requiem (2006) Directed by Hans-Christian Schmid. Starring Sandra Hüller, Burshart Klaußner, Imogen Kogge, Anna Blomeier [available from IFC Films on DVD and Netflix Watch Instantly]

This 2006 German film is based on the true story of Michaela Klinger, an epileptic young woman whose visions begin in her first year of university, where she is living on her own and enjoying a newfound freedom away from her strict, overprotective family (particularly her mother). With this new independence, she begins to make changes. She cuts her hair short, listens to different music and stops taking her epilepsy medication. She makes

new friends, goes to parties and even meets a boy. And, she begins to have visions. Her devoutly religious parents believe that she is possessed by demons and ask a priest to perform an exorcism to save her. Requiem is powerful without being melodramatic. It is shot in a simple and realistic style that highlights the key strengths of the film: Sandra Hüller’s performance as Michaela and the careful direction of Hans-Christian Schmid. Their collaboration presents a believable supposition on how these real events could have possibly taken place. The perspective of the film doesn’t focus on the source of Michaela’s visions, whether from an angel or a demon, but the circumstances that could cause her to believe them, and why her family and the church respond the way they do. The film is a cautionary tale about the mortal dangers of an overprotective family and the hubris of faith.

Where the Wild Things Are (2009) Directed by Spike Jonze. Based on the book by Maurice Sendak. Starring Max Records, Catherine Keener, James Gandolfini, Catherine O’Hara, Lauren Ambrose. [Available from Warner Bros Pictures on DVD and BluRay] The 2009 adaptation of the beloved 1970s children’s

book is a celebration of visions and the power of the imagination. Director Spike Jonze (Being John Malkovich) has successfully expanded Maurice Sendak’s story of Max, a boy who misbehaves and is sent to his room where he escapes into a world full of playful monsters. Jonze elaborates Max’s daily life, showing him playing alone in the snow, at school, and trying to get his mother’s attention while she is working at home. Jonze trades off some of the magic of the book in order to place

issue 6 Visions

he portrayal of someone seeing something that isn’t there, or imagining a different reality, is a fascinating cinematic subject because film, as a medium, is used to create an illusion of ‘reality’ for the viewer. Using “visions” as a cinematic theme demands that the viewer question what is real and not real; what we consider normal and acceptable—rejecting the idea of “suspension of disbelief” that we are told to use while watching a film.

the story closer to the real world. The wonderful thing is, however, that this trade-off increases the emotional impact and relevance of the story, making Where the Wild Things Are a film that both adults and children can relate to and enjoy. Max is carefully presented as a normal kid. He isn’t strange or crazy; he just spends a lot of time alone and depends on his imagination for company. Initially, the audience sees Max’s play from various perspectives—that of his mother, sister, schoolmates—but once he takes the boat to the Island of Wild Things, the audience is drawn into the reality of Max’s play world. It is a magical place where Max is king and the Wild Things do as he says, his child-like reasoning makes complete sense, and he is never alone. In most kid-oriented stories about visions or imaginary lands and friends, the child chooses the real world as a sign of growing up. One of my favorite things about Jonze’s version of Where the Wild Things Are is that Max is not required to abandon his imaginary life completely. Certainly, this one specific adventure is over, but who knows what visions tomorrow has in store.

Harvey (1950) Directed by Henry Koster. Based on the play by Mary Chase. Starring James Stewart, Josephine Hull, Peggy Dow and Charles Drake. [Available from Universal Pictures on DVD]

This classic Jimmy Stewart film approaches questions of reality and fantasy similar to Requiem but with a light, comedic approach. Stewart stars as Elwood P. Dowd, a mild-mannered bachelor who lives with his sister, Veta, and her daughter. His best friend is Harvey, a six-foot-tall white rabbit (also known as a Pooka) who, unbeknownst to Elwood, is invisible to everyone except him. Elwood is an incredible optimist, fearlessly friendly and happy in his simple life. He spends each day strolling around town, inevitably ending up at a bar for martinis with Harvey. He invites strangers back to his house for dinner, where he tries to introduce Harvey, much to the dismay of his sister who is attempting to find a suitable husband for her daughter. After being embarrassed one too many times by Elwood and Harvey, Veta finally decides to commit her brother to a nearby sanitarium. From there, mistaken identities, harmless hijinks, and lots of martinis ensue. Harvey effectively questions social normalcy while still being funny and sweet. It reminds the viewer of the importance of dreams and visions, and the innocence and open-mindedness that is necessary to keep the unreal or impossible a part of our lives. w

back COVER

These instructions should not appear your exported PDF. This Softcover template’s total width and spine width MUST be modified based on the exact number of pages in your book. For help with this visit this link for instructions and a video example: http://blurb.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/475 Following these instructions assure that your PDF is the correct size. A wrong-sized PDF will fail Preflight and need to be redone. Remember, that the total document width is more important than the spine width, as this measurement is only for a visual reference for the designer when adding content to the spine. Back cover image, “Apparition,” by Hugo C. Cardoso. March 2007, Central Amsterdam (The Netherlands). Front cover image by Wayne Kleppe.